What Wisconsin's 2026 Governor Hopefuls Want to Pursue First

Frederica Freyberg:
With so many candidates running for governor, it can be hard to remember all the names, much less where everyone stands on each issue. Last month, “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz sat down with nine of the leading candidates. You can find those interviews on PBSWisconsin.org/news. In addition, over the next few months, you’ll hear from the candidates on individual issues, everything from school funding to data centers to creating more affordable housing. Tonight, we kick things off with their highest priorities; what each candidate would work on first as governor.

Zac Schultz:
For the first time in 16 years, you can legitimately say control of the Wisconsin Legislature is up for grabs in the next election, which means the incoming governor could actually pass their agenda. So we asked each candidate what the first bill would be that they want to sign into law. The most common answer had to do with dealing with the rising costs of everything.

Sara Rodriguez:
So the things that I want to make sure that I’m signing into law are things that are going to reduce costs for Wisconsinites, and that’s going to be health care costs primarily, but also looking at child care. We’ve got other states that we can look at for examples where they’ve been able to subsidize child care for folks. Treating that as infrastructure is going to be something that’s going to be a priority for me.

David Crowley:
Well, the first thing I want to sign is about, you know, how do we really tackle this affordability crisis. You know, I would love for us to focus on affordable and attainable housing in every corner of the state of Wisconsin. I would like for us to focus on fully funding our public schools, making sure that there are good paying jobs, no matter where they are in our state, and making sure that our young people are ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Joel Brennan:
No matter what we do, the first thing we need to do is work on affordability. I think there are any number of ways in which we need to ensure, whether it’s on the issues of stable housing around the state, or whether it’s on the issues of health care, Medicaid expansion, which the governor has tried to do over the course of his eight years, hasn’t been able to do. Those are the types of things that can be done under — with a Democratic majority, and those are the types of things that I’d be eager to do right away.

Josh Schoemann:
Well, I think there’s a laundry list, and that’s part of our challenge. But one of the things that I want to see first is things that are focused on affordability, property taxes and income taxes in particular. It’s embarrassing to me that our top bracket of income tax is almost double what Illinois’s is. I’d like to see it flattened out and then slowly eliminated, and then property taxes. I’d like to see us go from 4 or 5 entities on property tax bills down to 2 or 3. The goal of cutting them by 50%. You make a moonshot, and if you hit the stratosphere, you’ve won.

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 healthcare 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.

Mandela Barnes:
The first priority is BadgerCare expansion. Right away, day one, special session if necessary. I refuse to sign a state budget that does not include BadgerCare expansion if we have not already gotten to that point. We’re one of nine states. We are one of nine states that has yet to expand our Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. It’s a travesty that that is not the case. Republicans and the Legislature have denied people the care that they deserve.

Tom Tiffany:
Boy, you know, I don’t think we have any choice at this point, but we got to deal with education. I just saw some data this week where almost half of first graders cannot read at grade level. We have fallen behind Mississippi in education. That is unacceptable. I don’t care if you’re Republican, Democrat or whatever political persuasion, we have always had a long, proud tradition of educating children well, and we’ve got to get that back otherwise our state cannot succeed. But I think next is the cost of living, and it is getting the cost of energy down, reducing taxes, things like that that make Wisconsin more affordable.

Kelda Roys:
Well, I want to sign a budget that raises wages for people, restores people’s rights, lowers costs on the biggest ticket items like health care and funds our public school system. Our kids have been getting shortchanged for a generation, and it’s not fair and it’s actually terrible for our economy. Big signature policy items that I’m interested in passing is opening up the state health insurance and the state pension systems to any person to be able to buy in.

Francesa Hong:
Red flag laws and background checks and safe storage. I think gun safety is a universal issue, and we have to meet — we have to ensure that we’re protecting our kids. Then public education and universal child care. I think when we put our kids first, working class families all win.

Zac Schultz:
Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”