SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
High-profile political surrogates have also been coming through Wisconsin to weigh in on its race for governor. That race is a close one, and this is a state where, over the years, voters has swung from one party to the other. I'm in the studio here in Madison with Anya van Wagtendonk of Wisconsin Public Radio. She's going to tell us more about this. Hi, Anya.
ANYA VAN WAGTENDONK, BYLINE: Hey, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: Give us brief bios of the two candidates for governor in Wisconsin.
And then there's the Republican congressman, Tom Tiffany. He comes from the Northwoods. It's kind of a shorthand for the rural upper part of Wisconsin. So in some ways, that's like the opposite of urban Milwaukee. Tiffany is very aligned with Trump. In 2020, he voted to overturn election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and he joined a lawsuit that would have overturned Wisconsin's election results.
PFEIFFER: And how is Tom Tiffany's closeness with Trump affecting this race?
VAN WAGTENDONK: Like a lot of Democratic candidates around the country right now who are emphasizing that their opponents are backed by Trump, Crowley is really focusing on that with Tiffany. Here he is at last week's debate between the two.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAVID CROWLEY: We don't need what is happening in Washington, D.C., coming into the state of Wisconsin. It is very clear that he is working for Donald Trump and the billionaires who are funding his campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED MEDIATOR: A response, Congressman.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Those billionaires he references - those are three Trump megadonors who are also funding the bulk of Tiffany's campaign. But Tiffany is downplaying that Trump connection. Here's how he responded to Crowley.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TOM TIFFANY: So while my opponent, you could see early on in the debate, is consistently focused on being against Donald Trump, I'm for Wisconsin.
PFEIFFER: Anya, I've heard an attack ad in this race. It's the one where the Republican calls the Democrat Data Center Dave, meant to be a disparagement. And data centers are a really big issue. Tell us how that's factoring into this race.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Yeah. Here, like elsewhere, data centers are unpopular with voters of all political backgrounds. And so that's been this fast, intense backlash that politicians have had to respond to that's been really prevalent in this race. You mentioned the campaign ads. Just listen to them.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #1: Data Center David Crowley won't roll back data center tax incentives. Our lakes run dry. Family farms paved over.
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR #2: Congressman Tom Tiffany voted for the SPEED Act to fast-track data centers and give them a $68 billion tax break.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Right now, neither candidate is calling for a full moratorium but both want more regulations, but as you can imagine, they want very different kinds of regulations.
PFEIFFER: You're also keeping your eye, I understand, on other parts of the state that are really in play.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Yeah. So a lot of people have their eye on western Wisconsin. It's an area that has really swung from one election to another. It's a working-class, mostly rural part of the state, and there's been a lot of dissatisfaction. There's also a long populist culture there. And so a lot of voters there went for Obama twice and then for Trump three times. And so now there's this big question - where do those voters go if they're not feeling so happy with the president right now? Could Democrats win them back?
PFEIFFER: And in other states, which you've also been keeping tabs on, which ones look most close?
VAN WAGTENDONK: Yeah. There's a close race next door in Michigan, where Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is term limited, and Republicans have a chance. Then Democrats have a chance to flip the governor's office in Iowa. And in Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton could turn the governor's mansion blue. Her opponent is former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. And there was a backlash last week over his campaign ad that used Acton's mother, whom Acton was removed from as a child because of abuse.
And legislatures are in play too. In Wisconsin, Democrats have a chance of potentially taking control of the legislature for the first time in almost 20 years. And they've been saying for years that if they had power, they would want to enshrine abortion rights, expand public school funding, subsidize childcare - long, long laundry list of changes. So the messaging is not just about Trump over here.
PFEIFFER: That is Anya van Wagtendonk of Wisconsin Public Radio. She's been talking to us about the Wisconsin governor's race - a close one - and other races around the country. Anya, thank you.
VAN WAGTENDONK: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
