Election night is always a nail-biter in Wisconsin. Incumbent Governor Tony Evers is not seeking another term, situating Democrat David Crowley and Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany for a close race to the governor’s mansion.
Crowley joins Jen to remind voters that the governor works for Wisconsinites, not for Trump and his billionaire buddies. Sharing the most pressing issues he’s heard from voters on the ground, Crowley emphasizes the need to invest in rural communities, public schools, and infrastructure tailored to Wisconsin’s unique needs.
David Crowley is the Democratic nominee for governor in Wisconsin.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian. I am delighted to have with us David Crowley. David is the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin. Welcome, David.
David Crowley
Thank you for having me, Jen. Glad to be here.
Jen Rubin
It’s wonderful to have you. Tell us, for those of you who aren’t familiar with your background, a little bit about yourself. Your upbringing, what you’ve been doing since you got to the race.
David Crowley
Absolutely. Well, I’m a Wisco kid through and through. You know, my father was a retired master electrician, my mother was a Jane of all trades. But they also have their shared struggles, right? They taught me the value of hard work, seeing what resilience looked like through their struggles, but they also taught me to get back up, you know, when someone knocks you down. You know, my parents, they struggled with drug addiction and mental health growing up. We were evicted 3 times, and for at least 15… before I graduated high school. And for at least 15 years of my life, we moved every single year, but if it wasn’t for our public schools, AmeriCorps, youth development organizations, and the church, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you today. And today, you know, I am now the county executive of Milwaukee County, the youngest and the first African American ever elected to this seat. I’m also a husband. I call my wife, Ericka, my better three-quarters, because there is no way that I will be able to do this without her. And I’m a proud girl dad times 3, of 3 amazing daughters who are just phenomenal. And, you know, we’ve done great work. As county executive, we have the lowest unsheltered homeless count per capita than any community in the United States. We’ve lowered overdose deaths by 40% in 4 years. We delivered the largest property tax cut in our county’s history. And one thing that I’m really proud of is that we helped keep our Milwaukee brewers here in the state of Wisconsin, especially with the fact that we have just reached the World Series.
Jen Rubin
There you go. Go Brewers! Now, you have had a Democratic governor, but there’s also been a Republican legislature. That could change with this election. It’s very close in both the State House and the State Assembly and in the State Senate. What could you accomplish if you had that trifecta of Democrats?
David Crowley
Then, you know, I think all of us are so excited about this opportunity, right? We always talk about this is the most important election, but I’ve reframed this, this is the most opportunist election Democrats have had in the state of Wisconsin in the past 16 years. And with the democratic trifecta, this means that we can fully fund our public schools, make sure that we can close the special education gap, that we can get rid of right to work for less in Act 10, allowing workers to come to the negotiating table. to focus and fight for better wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. We’ll be able to expand BadgerCare as an alternative to for-profit insurance here in the state of Wisconsin to make sure families aren’t falling through the cracks. Providing better access to behavioral health services, as well as making childcare that much more affordable and accessible, and something near and dear to me is that you have to focus on housing. You know, you can’t talk about education, you can’t talk about workforce without actually talking about housing, because it’s hard to think about your own health, how to put money in your pocket, you know, food and things of that nature when you don’t know where you’re going to lay your head down that night. And so with a democratic trifecta, I truly believe that we’ll be able to change the trajectory of not just Wisconsin, be able to prove to communities all across this country that Democrats can not only govern, but we’re rowing in the right direction.
Jen Rubin
You are going to have a lot of challenges, in part because of the federal government. And I want to talk a little bit about healthcare and rural healthcare. If those Medicaid cuts go into effect, your rural hospitals, many providers are going to be really strained. aside from perhaps trying to prevent that by electing Democrats to Congress, how are you going to meet that challenge next year if you’re governor?
David Crowley
But one, we have to win this race. You know, my opponent, he’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing these Medicaid and Medicare cuts. He voted for the big ugly bill, which is a true… slashed a trillion dollars from healthcare. And that’s 200… that’s affecting 270,000 Wisconsinites who are at risk of losing their healthcare. three rural hospitals at risk of closing, one of which is in my opponent’s backyard. And so I’m always willing to work with anyone and everybody when it comes down to moving the state of Wisconsin forward. But we know that we, on day one, the next governor’s gonna have to figure out, how do you plug many of the gaps within healthcare? And so, looking at some of the analysis that has already been done, for us to expand healthcare in the state of Wisconsin, it can cost, you know, anywhere between $80 to $180 million, which means that we have to increase our revenue. And one way we can bring that revenue in is by legalizing marijuana here in the state of Wisconsin. You know, we are a donut hole. Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, they all have legalization. Matter of fact, Governor Pritzker has praised and thanked Wisconsin residents because they’ve made $30 million in sales tax revenue alone off of Wisconsin residents. So just imagine what this opportunity could look like for us, and how we can give people access to that healthcare. And so I’m looking forward to working with that Democratic trifecta in order to get that done.
Jen Rubin
The other big cut that happened as a result of the big ugly bill was to SNAP benefits, to food benefits. Talk to us a little bit about what you can do to meet that gap, and the problem of kids going without breakfast, without lunch, school lunches, what that does to really Children and your entire education system if we don’t have a base of good nutrition.
David Crowley
You know, growing up, I know what it was like, you know, to wake up in the morning, not know if you’ll have breakfast, right? Or coming home from school, not knowing if there’ll be food on the table. And so, so many children rely on those school meals in order to get the nutrition that they need, and we need to have free school lunches, free school… free, nutritious meals for all of our students throughout the state of Wisconsin. If we’re not investing in our children now. when are we going to invest in them? When they go to prison, that’s way… that’s extremely too late, right? We have a duty in making sure that we invest upstream to make sure that our children aren’t going down the wrong path. And so, for me, we absolutely have to, especially when it’s not just affecting the dollars that SNAP recipients get, but it’s also affecting our farmers here in the state of Wisconsin, right? We have… my opponent, you know, he’s working for the billionaires who are bankrolling his campaign. You know, because he voted to protect the Canadian terrorists, even though it’s hurting the farmers in his own district. He voted to protect the war on Iran five times, even though it’s hurting our grocery prices, it’s hurting our manufacturers at the exact same time. And so I look forward to working with our farmers, working with our local producers. to work… to create our own ecosystem, to get food into the… onto the table of our kids, into our schools, but more importantly, making sure that we’re creating the type of exports that they need from their communities across the state of Wisconsin to make sure that we can lower costs for everyone.
Jen Rubin
And that’s kind of where I want to take this, in our final minutes. a lot of Wisconsin is farm country. Great dairy producers, obviously. They are hurting. We’ve gotten into a trade war with Canada. Diesel prices are through the roof. Talk to us a little bit about what you’re seeing in rural Wisconsin, and what you as governor, in addition to working with, hopefully, a Democratic Congress, can do to try to restore rural America, give young people a reason to stay in rural America, stay in Wisconsin.
David Crowley
You know, Jen, one of the things that I love about running for governor is you get to meet so many different people, you know? And I remember being, you know, up north in Kewaunee County, talking to Clark, who’s had his farm for generations. You know, and he’s told me that in the past 35 years, this is the worst than it has been. He’s never gotten involved in politics. But he just couldn’t keep quiet because of how much he’s hurting. And because of the decisions that were made by this Trump administration, at the age of 60, he’s gonna have to work at least another 10 years. Just to make sure that he can recoup the losses that he has seen under this administration. And we know that for the past 50 years, Republicans have been Creating a wedge between rural, suburban, and urban communities to say that we’re not different. But you know what? We’ve realized that we all want safe communities. We all want to fully fund our public schools. We all want to go… to the doctor and be able to go and get the critical care that we need without having to travel hours away. You know, we may have come here on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now. And so our focus is making sure that we can roll in the right direction, which is forward, and we do that by making sure that we’re listening to our rural communities. I represent 19 different municipalities. I know that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. And this is why you have to bring people to the table. Let them lend their voice to the solutions that work for their communities, because that’s how… that’s how we’re going to create the long-term solutions that we need in the state of Wisconsin to make sure that we’re the best place in the Midwest.
Jen Rubin
Last question for you. Wisconsin is the ultimate swing state. If you win by 1%, that’s a landslide. What do you say to Republicans, or maybe independents who have voted Republican, about why they should vote for you? Why do you think that you’re the right one now, in a state that’s very evenly politically divided, to lead them?
David Crowley
Well, I think this whole election is about who your governor works for. You know, I’ve been a community organizer, a political staffer in the state senate, I served in the state legislature, and now I run one of the largest counties in the state of Wisconsin. This is about who’s going to work for you to make sure that your children have access to a quality public school, to make sure that rural communities can get access to an OBGYN and not have to travel 3 hours away, or plan for delivering a baby a week in advance. This is about making sure that we all understand that we need somebody who’s going to focus on all of Wisconsin to be a governor for all of us, not just some… those who voted for someone. And when you think about my opponent, Congressman Tom Tiffany. He doesn’t work for the constituents. He doesn’t work for Wisconsinites. He has been doing the bidding of the billionaires who’ve bankrolled him. He’s voted with Donald Trump 100% of the time, which is mind-boggling. My wife doesn’t even agree with me 100% of the time. And so, at the end of the day, this is about who’s going to work for you. Congressman Tom Tiffany. He delivered the tax breaks while we all got higher prices. He delivered them tariffs while we all got higher prices. He delivered them an endless war while we got record high gas prices. He’s working for them. I’m gonna work for you.
Jen Rubin
David Crowley, thanks so much, and if people want to find out more about your campaign, where do they go?
David Crowley
You can always visit our website, Crowleyforwi.com, or look at us on Facebook, all the different social media platforms at CrowleyforWI.
Jen Rubin
Thanks so much. We’ll look forward to election night. I’m sure it’ll be a nail-biter, it always is in Wisconsin. So, thanks so much for joining us.
David Crowley
Not a problem, it will be a late night.
