Here & Now

Evers Looks Ahead to 2022

Zac Schultz:

Well, governor, thanks for your time today.

Tony Evers:

You bet.

Zac Schultz:

As we look ahead to 2022, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the state?

Tony Evers:

Well, certainly the challenge that we’re facing right now around the pandemic. It certainly is something that is impactful on our economy and it’s impactful on people’s health. It stretches our great health system and hospital system we have in our state that continues to be. Obviously, we have to work on other things at the same time. Issues around broadband and making sure that our roads are fixed and we have good health care systems. But overall, a lot of focus will continue to be on that

Zac Schultz:

Compared to where we were a year and a half ago in terms of being able to handle the coronavirus, do you think the advances we’ve made in boosters and vaccines compensate for the general fatigue among people in handling the virus and also within our health care system?

Tony Evers:

Great question, because the answer is yes. I mean, certainly we know much more. That’s — that’s the glory of science is that people discover things and usually things for the good. And we have vaccines that take care of whatever variant people have. And so, you know, we have the testing materials that are available. All the things that we need to do going forward are in place. Obviously, we need better, better vaccination numbers than we have now. And I’ll tell you Zac, the thing that gives me hope is that having seen several situations over the years, but I’ll use Waukesha and the Boscobel tornado is that when people are in trouble, neighbors help neighbors and they do everything they can to be good, resilient people and embrace their neighbors’ troubles. We need — we need that same thing going on here with this pandemic. If people get a shot, they can avoid — they can avoid dying. People get a shot, they can avoid their neighbor becoming ill and possibly dying. It’s the same theory of action. We need to — we need to set the politics aside, and I know that’s going to be next to impossible, but we have to continue to work on this. We need — we’re getting thousands of people shots in arms every single day. I would be happy if it was 50,000 people a day, but we have — we can’t give up because that’s, that’s the answer for us. We, we have to get vaccinated.

Zac Schultz:

In the 2020 election, there was the thought that Republicans might be punished by voters for their laissez faire approach to handling the coronavirus through the state’s perspective. And they weren’t. They were largely reelected. Looking ahead to next year, do you think you will be rewarded by the voters for how you’ve handled the virus?

Tony Evers:

Well, I think overall people are satisfied that I follow the science and that I understand how important it is to have the PPE and the testing materials and all the things that we’ve done. In addition, we’ve been able to use the federal money that’s available to, to help our small businesses, to help our farmers, help people that are in the tourism industry. Those that have been most impacted by financially – by this, by this pandemic. And frankly, as a result, we have one of the lowest or, you know, tied for the lowest unemployment rate in our state’s history. And so, I believe whether people reward me or not, I’ll leave that for pollsters to figure out. I think people understand that I followed the science. I will continue to do that, will continue to provide resources for those industries that fail so that our economy can continue to bounce back. I think three, that’s a winning combination. I’ll leave it to the pollsters to figure out, though, the impact.

Zac Schultz:

Republicans in Wisconsin have led a series of investigations into the last elections, with a wide range of accusations from minor mishandling all the way up to criminal negligence. What’s the overall impact on these constant cries of illegitimacy and fraud?

Tony Evers:

Well, that’s — it does have an impact. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re going to take essentially lies and try to make them into truth, of course, there’s going to be people that are going to be saying, you know, is this system broken or not? So I’m disappointed that the leadership in the Republican Party has decided to take this tack because it’s self-fulfilling. I mean, for them to say as well, people don’t trust the system. It’s because you’ve told them that. You’ve told them that with no data. You’ve told them that with frankly lies. And so it’s a clown show, frankly, that needs to end. We need — we have a good system. It’s secure and we, we — I will make sure that we will do whatever we can to make sure that people in Wisconsin can feel comfortable that the system works. And frankly, encourage people to vote instead of discouraging people to vote.

Zac Schultz:

Democrats across the country are accusing Republicans of attacking democracy itself. Do you think Republicans in Wisconsin are attacking the democratic process?

Tony Evers:

Of course they are. Voting is a — is the most pure and important part of a democracy, whether it’s Wisconsin or the country. And if people are out there spewing lies and mistruths and fulfilling their own prophecy that things are — things aren’t right, that is — that’s an attack on democracy. And I am here to say to the people of Wisconsin that the system is good and secure. It’s fair. It was created by the Republicans and it has worked. And so we are going to make sure that every eligible person that is a voter in the state of Wisconsin has that opportunity to vote. We hope they do vote.

Zac Schultz:

Democrats have spent most of the last decade championing redistricting reform. You created the People’s Maps Commission to create fair maps. And yet the maps you just submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court didn’t come from that commission and never had a public hearing. Was the creation of fair maps realistic in this political environment, and how will your supporters feel about what will eventually become the maps?

Tony Evers:

Well, first of all, that map commission did an outstanding job. I followed their work daily. I thought they did an excellent job. If I had a magic wand, I would have taken what they did. Obviously, the Supreme Court decided they had different criteria. They, for some way, determined that it was important that we, we recognize — not recognized, but they essentially said to the people of Wisconsin, well, what happened 10 years ago is OK. Nothing’s changed since. Obviously, that isn’t accurate. It’s kind of a strange criterion in our, our belief. We did create different maps to submit to the — because if we’d taken People’s Maps to the Supreme Court, they would have thrown it out. We needed to we need to make progress. So we created new maps that took the data from the Maps Commission that they held public hearings on, especially around communities of interest, which is a much broader concept. And that’s what we used going forward. So it wasn’t that it was done in secret. We used the information that the Maps Commission came for us. We’re hopeful that we’re successful in the Supreme Court. Of course, the federal courts still may take a look at this. So even though it’s a bit murky at this point in time, we expect — we would love to make some progress on this and I think we can.

Zac Schultz:

No matter the map, it seems evident Republicans will maintain control of the Legislature. Does that put even more focus on your reelection?

Tony Evers:

Not necessarily. It’s, you know, it’s part of what’s baked into our geography here in Wisconsin but my reelection is going to be about not necessarily maps. Do I continue to support fair maps? Absolutely. Do I support an independent group of people making those decisions? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, people of Wisconsin want to get things done, and we’ve been able to do that even with Republican help during the last three years, especially around issues of broadband, especially around issues with our roads. We fixed over 1700 miles of roads in the state of Wisconsin. We’ve brought high quality broadband over 300,000 households in the state of Wisconsin. We’ve had success. We’ve had success around income tax and infrastructure. Those things are what people in Wisconsin care about and that’s what we’re going to be talking about.

Zac Schultz:

And finally, President Biden’s approval ratings are not healthy in a lot of polls, and as you’re well aware, that doesn’t spell good news for Democrats next fall. So how important is it that Democrats were able to pass the infrastructure bill? And how key is it that they pass some portion of the rest of the president’s agenda?

Tony Evers:

Well, I think all those are important, especially the infrastructure bill was very important. But at the end of the day, it’s about what we have been able to accomplish as a state of Wisconsin. It is very difficult – difficult for me and I’m a politician – to follow exactly what’s going on in Washington, D.C. to make any judgments about whether it’s good or bad for and the impact on Wisconsin. So I feel confident that people will recognize the opportunities that we’ve brought during the pandemic using federal money and also what we’ve been able to do through our budgets around for our schools and for our infrastructure and frankly lowering income taxes and having the lowest unemployment rate at 3.0 that we’ve ever seen before. We have made progress and those are the things that are important.

Zac Schultz:

All right, Governor Evers, thanks for your time.

Tony Evers:

Thanks a lot, Zac.