Zac Schultz:
As governor, there's a good chance you could have a Democratic Legislature behind you. In that case, what's your AB 1? What's the first bill you want to sign?

Missy Hughes:
Well, the first thing that the governor comes in and does at any time when there's a new governor is write the budget. And so I will be working closely with whoever's in the Legislature to make sure that we have a budget that is immediately addressing challenges that Wisconsinites are facing, things like health care and child care costs, but also we have a real challenge around public education. We need to reinvest in our teachers and our schools, and we need to make sure that our university and our tech colleges are funded in a way that helps them move forward. It's all about investment. It's all about taking the dollars that we have in Madison and leveraging them around the state to make great things happen for Wisconsinites.

Zac Schultz:
There's also a good chance that Republicans could control part of the Legislature. What's your history of working across the aisle?

Missy Hughes:
You know, I would say I was confirmed twice by the Republican Senate unanimously as Secretary of Economic Development. And if you asked any of them, I believe that they would say they have a record of working with me. I would also say that I've had a bipartisan board at WEDC for six years, and in that whole time, we had two close votes. Other than that, the board was practically unanimous in many of our moves, approving our budgets, passing programs. So, I have a mindset of working with everybody who is willing to come to the table and have good discussions and think about how do we make Wisconsin better.

Zac Schultz:
The Public Service Commission is looking at some large utility rate hikes, and we're seeing data centers being proposed all over the state. What's your policy on that, and do you think we need to put some laws in place regarding those issues?

Missy Hughes:
I think the most important thing to remember when it comes to data centers is we have leverage in those conversations. The data centers want to be here in Wisconsin for the main reason is that it's cold, and it doesn't cost as much for them to cool those big data centers because of Mother Nature and just the weather that's all around them. So if they want to come to our party, if they want to be here, let's invite them, but let's be at the table making sure that they are good partners for the state and making sure that we are negotiating the best deals that we can for the state. I'm somebody who's been at that table. I've had those conversations. I've worked with the big data centers and the big providers. I've worked with many big companies in negotiating for Wisconsin, and I have that experience that I would bring to the table. And I would be very hands-on in making sure that we're doing everything we can to protect Wisconsin ratepayers, Wisconsin's environment, but also take advantage of the opportunity that's offered by the investment we're seeing in technology.

Zac Schultz:
You mentioned public education. Does that just need more money, or is there an overhaul that needs to be involved in that?

Missy Hughes:
You know, right now we're in this situation where we have said that competition is good. Decades ago we decided, you know, competition is going to make our public schools better. But one thing we're not doing is looking at the rating of how other schools are doing that are receiving public funds, whether those are charter schools or other types of choice schools. We need to have a scale that helps us understand how are they competing. It isn't necessarily that something must be better than public schools. It's, let's have a real accountability, make sure our kids are achieving and getting the quality that they need in order to succeed. I will do everything I can to support public schools and public school teachers because that is so fundamental to how we are as a state. We're based in education. We have just had eight years of an education governor who did tremendous work, and I was proud to work for him, but we need to make sure that we continue to invest and put those dollars to work in our communities.

Zac Schultz:
When it comes to the voucher system, do you think that needs to be restricted, expanded, left alone?

Missy Hughes:
I think that we need to look and make sure that we have good accountability and transparency first. Before we start making decisions about stopping or starting or eliminating, we need to understand what are they providing for our children and our families, 'cause there are families that are counting on those voucher schools. But at the same time, it can't come at the cost of public schools, and it can't come at the cost of making sure that we're funding special education.

Zac Schultz:
What's the number-one tax reform that you'd like to see happen?

Missy Hughes:
I would like to see that we're making sure that when Wisconsinites pay into their income taxes or their property taxes, those dollars are getting reinvested. Right now we have a system where the money is coming to Wisconsin, to Madison, and it is staying here and not being reinvested in our communities. When we pay our hard-earned dollars into property taxes or income taxes, we expect those to be leveraged back across the state. And so making sure that we have a system that is responsibly deploying those dollars is the first thing that I think is most important.

Zac Schultz:
Over the course of the last year, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has rolled back legislative oversight of the rulemaking process, and there have been some people saying that we need to have some bipartisan reform to put some oversight back in place. What do you think on those issues?

Missy Hughes:
You know, there is a broken process between the executive branch and our legislative branch. That broken process has been years and years in the making, and it is because we can't find our way to allow the other side to have a win or to have the other side to have a good conversation about these things. What we need to do is get people back to the table, and as governor, what I would want to do is be sitting down with legislators who have concerns around particular regulations, understanding what those concerns are, but then saying, "We got to move these things forward." People need to know that government can function. We can't have these things continually hung up, just like the surplus in Madison, and not being answered for the people of Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:
What would you like to see in terms of funding for local governments?

Missy Hughes:
You know, local governments are really struggling under the weight of a lack of funding and years of lack of funding. I had a chance to sit down with the local police department in Vernon County. I did a ride-along and sat and talked with the sheriff, and he explained to me some of the real challenges they're seeing when it comes to taking care of their officers but also taking care of the people who are in their facilities. And, you know, when we're making decisions about whether to support the mental health care of our law enforcement officers versus making sure that we're providing other services to Wisconsinites, and these are very, very difficult conversations, we need to do better and make sure that local communities have resources. My platform of building the economy is really focused on looking at the main streets around the state, saying, "What do you need? What are your priorities?" Giving some resources, so that then they can start to generate momentum and be able to have local economies that are providing good jobs, health care and the services that Wisconsinites need.

Zac Schultz:
Currently there are multiple exploratory mining projects happening in northern Wisconsin that could develop into full-scale mines. Do you think that our current mining law is sufficient to deal with that? And what are your thoughts on mining?

Missy Hughes:
You know, I think that we've seen decades of ignoring people's rights when it comes to some of that land, whether it's our tribal nations in the state, and also ignoring the economic, I'm sorry, the environmental impact on some of our areas. Natural resources in Wisconsin are the basis of our economy. We have to protect them, while at the same time we have to use them responsibly. We have to make sure that our mining laws are in tune with current mindset around how we protect people's rights in the land and protecting the environment with making sure that we keep using the resources in a responsible way.

Zac Schultz:
Yeah, do you have any concerns about your own personal safety in this political environment while campaigning?

Missy Hughes:
You know, no more than how dangerous it is to drive here from western Wisconsin on an icy day. Certainly it's disappointing to see the level of noise that is created around politics these days. Wisconsinites are looking for someone who's going to bring that noise level down. That's what I'm going to do. And, you know, despite security concerns, despite things like that, I have the energy to be in this conversation. That's what Wisconsinites need. We need leaders who are ready for day in, day out, working through these issues in reasonable ways, and that's what I'm going to do.

Zac Schultz:
What would you like to do in terms of increasing affordable housing across the state?

Missy Hughes:
Housing is a vexing problem, but it is not insurmountable. And what we've seen at WEDC, the work that we did was to support innovative housing, whether it's bringing a nursing home into housing — a nursing home that's closed in Gilman — we were able to support making that into apartments. Or schools that have closed due to lack of population, turning those into housing. But we were also seeing new housing being built. And so what I would want to do is make sure that local communities have the resources they need to provide the infrastructure — the water, the sewer — for new housing, but then also making sure that we're supporting developers all around the state as they make the move to build housing. I think we can do it. We have to find the best practices that are being utilized all around the state and replicate them, but it's one step at a time. It's a mountain that has to be climbed, and the way that you do that is by taking one step at a time.

Zac Schultz:
Right now, Gov. Evers has an ambitious plan to overhaul the Department of Corrections. Would you carry that plan forward?

Missy Hughes:
I would. I watched that plan be developed. I have great, great respect for the team at the Department of Corrections who has put that plan together along with Gov. Evers' administration, and we need to get moving on that. It might not be perfect, but nothing ever is when it comes to corrections. It's a very difficult situation, but we need to make improvements on that. We need to modernize that system. It is costing us more now to keep the old system in place than it would be to build a new system and get that rolling.

Zac Schultz:
Would you like to see any changes to Wisconsin's abortion law?

Missy Hughes:
I would like to see it proactively protected. Women's right to choose right now is dependent on court cases, and we need to have a law on the books that protects women's right to choose, protects women's rights to take care of everything that they need for their bodies, and puts women first in that conversation.