Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley edged out state representative Francesca Hong in a late push in the Democratic primary for governor. Looking forward, what does Crowley's race against the Republican nominee, Congressman Tom Tiffany, look like in the general election on Nov. 3?
WUWM's Maayan Silver asked political editor JR Ross of WisPolitics.com.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WUWM's Maayan Silver: It was a wild Democratic primary for governor. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley ended up winning the Democratic primary, while Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany ended up winning the GOP primary. Now they both head into the general election. Can you give a short synopsis of those two candidates' strengths and weaknesses?
JR Ross: Well, look, Crowley does not have the baggage that Hong did of tweeting about cancelling Thanksgiving or being uncomfortable at a Culver's in northern Wisconsin because she thought there are a lot of old white people there who assume that she didn't speak English, stuff like that. He has a lot the same kind of beliefs in terms of policies, but Crowley is making the case that he's gotten stuff done. He's been county executive.
Well, Republicans, we're already seeing, are going to attack him on things like raising taxes in Milwaukee County, crime in Milwaukee County, the issues with the health insurance plan for County employees, that there was a little lapse there in how it was handled. They're gonna make the case that he is just as liberal as Hong, just does things a different way.
For Tiffany, it is that he is basically tied at the hip to Donald Trump. He is staunchly anti-abortion. And he's part of Washington, D.C., you know, I mean, obviously Tiffany represented the 7th congressional district, served in the state Legislature, but he's a part of that D.C. world because he serves in Congress. That's not a popular place to be.
And in the end, this race is going to be shaped a lot by a of couple of factors nationally, that they can't do anything about. One is just the cost of living and the cost of gas. And two, Donald Trump — what are his numbers? And people have argued to me in the past few days that with Hong, it would have taken the focus off of Trump and the economy and put it more into Hong and her beliefs and her past social media comments, with Crowley as the nominee now for Democrats, it makes it easier for Dems to prosecute the case against Tiffany via gas prices and Donald Trump than if was Hong that Tiffany was running against.
You've talked about how important it is for national Democrats or important donors to the Democratic Party to get behind the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin, for them to be able to have some legs against Congressman Tom Tiffany. Are you seeing that yet?
We've already got a buy from the Democrat Governors Association going after Tiffany, launched the day after the primary. It's about $1.4 million that I've seen so far. So yeah, they're going full-tilt. And that was a big question, was whether they’d support Hong, but now with Crowley, they’re definitely getting on board in this race.
Does this new head-to-head matchup between Crowley and Tiffany, how will it impact the efforts of both parties, in Republicans' case to keep control of the Senate and Assembly, and in Democrats' case, their effort to flip them?
Look, a lot of the seats that are up for grabs this fall, Kamala Harris did better than Donald Trump in 2024, which is not a great year for Democrats. There was a real fear among Democrats and operatives among Republicans that Hong as the nominee would make it easier to win those seats because she would be a drag on the Democrat brand up and down the ticket.
Now with Crowley, it's much more back in Democrats' favor in the state Senate, where nothing is guaranteed, but they feel much more confident about the Senate now. Republicans, they have a tougher fight on their hands with Crowley as the nominee. Look, Crowley still has baggage. He's still gonna get knocked about a bunch of things, but he doesn't have the baggage that Hong does. It changes the equation quite a bit. We're also now gonna see, again, where's Donald Trump come October for his job approval ratings? How expensive is gas? The national mood [does so much more] to shape even local elections, that it's gonna be hard for them to escape that shadow of the president.
