Podcasts

Zac Schultz:
In other closely watched races, Michael Alfonso won the Republican primary in the 7th Congressional District in northern Wisconsin. He’s the Trump-endorsed son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The 7th has a strong Republican lean, and if elected, the 26-year-old Alfonso will become the youngest member of Congress. He faces former state legislator Fred Clark, who won the Democratic primary.
In the 3rd Congressional District in western Wisconsin, Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary with more than 60% of the vote, setting up a rematch with Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden. Plenty to talk about with our political panelists, Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks to both of you for being here.

Bill McCoshen:
Thanks for having us.

Zac Schultz:
First, we have to talk about Crowley’s win on Tuesday. Scot, how improbable was it to see a candidate drop out and then come back in less than a month and win the nomination?

Scot Ross:
Oh, it’s something we haven’t seen before but, you know, David Crowley has a long record of delivering for the people of Wisconsin as the county executive of the largest county. He’s cut property taxes. He’s invested in small businesses. He’s invested in community health, and he’s invested in the things that really drive the economy and move things forward. So he’s a formidable candidate against a very flawed candidate in Tom Tiffany, who has a ten-year record in the state legislature of making it harder for Wisconsinites. And he decided to go after to Congress on the next thing. And he spent five years making it harder for everybody else.

Zac Schultz:
So, Bill, Tom Tiffany Republicans seemed very eager to face Francesca Hong. Will it be a shift for them to pivot to Crowley?

Bill McCoshen:
Yeah, I don’t think there’s any question about that but to your original question, I think it’s unprecedented what happened on Tuesday night. I mean, we’ve never seen a candidate get out of the race and then get back into the race, get the sitting governor’s endorsement. The sitting governor travels around the state with him and literally brings him across the finish line. For your poker players and poker enthusiasts that are watching this show, this is like a royal flush. For that to happen, every star had to line up perfectly and I give Governor Evers credit. I mean, he leaned in to David Crowley and did everything he could. He put his legacy on the line and it worked. That, coupled with $4 million of ads at the end, that trade unions were very much involved in, they get credit for that as well. And there was some — finally, some contrast in the race. David Crowley ran some contrast, and it was on the biggest flaw that Francesca Hong made the entire campaign, which was the issue of Thanksgiving. She said she had old tweets that said, “Cancel Thanksgiving.” She went on both Fox News and CNN and had some unfortunate comments that lasted a whole week nationally. It was a bad — it was the worst unforced error I’ve ever seen in statewide politics that played into this as well. But it was an unbelievable comeback for David Crowley.

Zac Schultz:
Would you ever thought Thanksgiving was going to be the deciding issue?

Scot Ross:
Well, I always joke that like, you know, Donald Trump hates Thanksgiving too because it means he has to spend more time with Donald, Jr. and Eric. I don’t know if he spends any time with the second one from the second marriage or the, you know, anchor baby from the third. But that’s, you know, I mean, again, this race now goes on to Donald Trump. This is about Donald Trump and Tom Tiffany. Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump lie about everything. He has a long record of failing Wisconsin, whether it’s cutting $300 billion from rural health care, whether it’s a nationwide abortion ban, which he supports. When he was in the state Legislature, he cut public education by the largest in history. This case now will be about Donald Trump, whose, you know, rating is in the toilet and the fact that Tom Tiffany votes with him, not 80% of the time, not 90% of the time, 100% of the time. My God, if, you know, we usually see candidates out there on busses, if Donald Trump says so, Tom Tiffany is going to be riding around in a, you know, in one of those catering carts.

Zac Schultz:
Well, Donald — Tom Tiffany was asked, would you like to see Donald Trump in Wisconsin? And he hedged. He said, “Oh, he’s very busy.”

Bill McCoshen:
Well, let me just be very clear about this. No one in history has gotten more votes in the state of Wisconsin than Donald Trump. If Donald Trump can turn out that 1.7 million voters for Tom Tiffany, Tom Tiffany will easily be the next governor of the state of Wisconsin. So, yes, there is a role for Donald Trump in this election. And whether that’s town hall meetings like he did for Michael Alfonso, or it’s mail or it’s phone banks or whatever it may be, and maybe it’s public appearances. We’ll see. But there’s absolutely a role for Donald Trump.

Zac Schultz:
The rap on Tom Tiffany a year ago, when he was first being floated as a candidate for governor, was can you raise any money? Well, he’s had billionaires that have transferred money through the party to him. He’s funded a lot of ads. He’s already on the air right now. Will he have enough or do you think maybe the billionaire faucet gets turned off if they don’t view this as as winnable a race with Crowley versus Hong?

Bill McCoshen:
Oh, I think he’s going to raise more money than any candidate in history. And that includes the self-funders that we’ve had in the last couple of cycles on the Republican side. I don’t think money’s going to be an issue for Tom Tiffany. I think they’re going to do even more on the low dollar side. That’s out there. It’s called low hanging fruit in politics. They can easily go get that. But Tom Tiffany will not have a resource issue.

Zac Schultz:
Will Democrats have enough money? Ben Wikler is not there at the Democratic Party to bring in all that money.

Bill McCoshen:
He’s helping with this.

Scot Ross:
Yeah, I think he’ll be helping out. You know, yeah, the Democratic strategy is to raise a lot of money, right? I mean, they’ve done a very good job using things like the loopholes created by Robin Vos.

Bill McCoshen:
We’ve never been in on the grift.

Scot Ross:
Mayhap another instance of being hoisted on your own petard. And they have $5 million left to spend, of course, because the Republicans, what they wanted to accomplish was that Fran Hong not be the next governor of the great state of Wisconsin and with their $5 million of spending, have achieved their goal. So I’m sure they’re popping champagne bottles over that one. It’s, you know, this is going to be a wide-open race. Clearly, as you pointed out, Tom Tiffany has raised $10 million in — of his money in 2026 from three billionaires. You know, the two Uihleins and Diane Hendricks. And on the day he got his last transfer, he promised on the radio he was not going to raise taxes on billionaires. So that was a nice timing for that.

Bill McCoshen:
This is a loophole that Democrats have used successfully under Ben Wikler for ten straight years.

Zac Schultz:
Both parties…

Bill McCoshen:
Republicans finally figured it out. Yeah, we’re leveling the playing field.

Zac Schultz:
The irony of this is it was less than a year ago that Tom Tiffany was calling this the billionaire loophole that Democrats abused, even though he was part of the process of creating it. But now he’s taking advantage of it.

Bill McCoshen:
Well, why wouldn’t you? It’s a legal mechanism for raising money in the state of Wisconsin, and Republicans have failed to use it in the past. Tiffany is not going to make that mistake.

Scot Ross:
He can spend all the money he wants, but he can’t erase his record. He did scrub his website after right before he got in saying, like, you know, all the really radically extreme policies but then again yesterday he was photographed with his lit in his back pocket, which says MAGA extremist Tom Tiffany. So, you know, we’ll have to see how he explains that one away.

Bill McCoshen:
Gubernatorial races are all about the future. What are you going to do for me? What’s in it for me as a voter if I vote for you? Scot Ross or Bill McCoshen, or in this case, Tom Tiffany or David Crowley. Tom Tiffany is already out with positive ads talking about his agenda for the future of the state of Wisconsin. And I think it’s very, very positive. You’re also going to see sharp contrast between him and David Crowley, which you did not see until the very end of the Democratic primary. And I think that was a mistake for all the other candidates who ran against Francesca Hong. David Crowley figured it out at the right time, and it worked.

Zac Schultz:
Switching to congressional races, we’ve got a rematch in the 3rd with incumbent Republican Derrick Van Orden against Rebecca Cooke. Scot, does this race follow the national environment or the top of the ticket, or does it stand out on its own, particularly for Democrats and independents in the 3rd?

Scot Ross:
Well, I would say that because Tom Tiffany, you know, supports the $2 billion slush fund for terrorist insurrectionists, that he is the biggest January 6th terrorist insurrectionist in Wisconsin but we actually have a January 6th terrorist insurrectionist as the candidate and current congressperson from the 3rd Congressional District, Derrick Van Orden. He is unhinged. You know, people criticize me sometimes about my speaking online, but this guy is totally unhinged. And Rebecca Cooke brings a real experience of what people in the state, what people in the 3rd Congressional District have to deal with: affordability, gas prices, you know, working two jobs. And I think that translates much better for what the public’s going to want in this election, especially given the record that Trump has in the state, whether it’s with Tom Tiffany or Derrick Van Orden of really hurting people in Wisconsin.

Bill McCoshen:
Even in midterms, which are historically bad for the party in power. And in this case, it’s Republicans. 87% of incumbent congresspeople get re-elected. So the advantage is going to be to Derrick Van Orden. Rebecca Cooke has already lost that seat twice. I think she’s going to lose the rematch. It’s going to be a hat trick of losses for her, but it will be a competitive race right down to the end. And that’s one where we may see Donald Trump in La Crosse or Eau Claire.

Zac Schultz:
Does Derrick Van Orden need to adjust his behavior? Already on Twitter this week, he was saying Democrats stole the primary election or is he just be who he is?

Bill McCoshen:
I think he is who he is. I wouldn’t have said that. I don’t think that’s accurate. I don’t think we should care how your primary played out. At the end of the day, Francesca Hong didn’t care. She had the ability to ask for a recount. She chose not to. Spoke volumes about her character, I think. So we should focus on the future. That’s what voters want us to talk about is what are you going to do to help us balance our checkbook every month here?

Zac Schultz:
So in the 7th congressional, Michael Alfonso used his father-in-law’s money and the Trump endorsement to cruise to the nomination. Ordinarily, the 7th isn’t in play. Could it be with someone of his particular reputation and this being an open seat?

Scot Ross:
If ever the sauce was there to be sampled by the Democratic voters, it might be there because this is a guy who has absolutely no experience. He’s a carpetbagger. You know, he got there by, you know, essentially financed by Sean Duffy’s corruption. So, yes, I think that if Fred Clark can get the resources to be able to articulate that, then I say it’s entirely possible whether or not he’ll be able to get it, it’s going to be tough because again, Republican failure all over the country, the Democrats are all over the place in terms of being able to spend in races they might not otherwise have been able to get. And very clearly, Democrats will have the control of the Congress come after this election.

Zac Schultz:
This is Tom Tiffany’s home place, and there’s a lot of legacy.

Bill McCoshen:
And Sean Duffy’s before that.

Zac Schultz:
Yeah.

Bill McCoshen:
There’s legacy. Listen, Michael Alfonso and his family moved to Land O’ Lakes when he was three years old. I know this because I coached him in hockey when he was ten years old for a team out of Minocqua. He then — they moved to Wausau when he was in middle school, which is where he met Sean Duffy’s daughter. He’s a Wisconsinite through and through. I like the notion of having someone young on our side, finally, running for a major office, and I think he’s going to do well. He surprised me by how much he won a highly competitive primary by.

Zac Schultz:
That was an impressive win considering the amount of money that was spent in that district. All right, that is all the time we have. Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross. Thanks again.

Scot Ross:
Thanks.