Here & Now

Zac Schultz on Rodriguez Ending her 2026 Run for Governor

Frederica Freyberg:
After a Monday news conference where she fired her campaign manager for messing up the financial reports but still vowed to stay in the race, Democratic primary candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez, today dropped out. She said the fundraising reporting mess would be too big of a distraction. Senior political reporter Zac Schultz is here with details and hi Zac.

Zac Schultz:
Hello, Fred.

Frederica Freyberg:
So this has been almost like a slow-motion train wreck. Exactly what happened?

Zac Schultz:
It’s been a back and forth all week. Last week we were talking about all the momentum she had. The candidates that had dropped out were endorsing her. I was in touch with the campaign to see where she be out in the field this week. We were going to touch base with all the Democratic candidates, and they got back to me and said, “Well, we’re still figuring out that schedule.” Well, by Sunday, they’d fired her campaign manager. By Monday, she has a press conference saying, “I’m in the race, but fundraising is a little weaker.” We talked to the other candidates. They’re like what a mess. Your whole authority says you can run things and you don’t have any oversight of your own campaign. Her campaign finance sheets come and show she’s broke and deeply in debt. Then she makes another press conference to say that she’s got all this money and then quickly says, “Nope, sorry, that was an error as well.” And now she’s out. So it’s been back and forth. People really trying to figure out where is the truth. And when she says it was a distraction, she’s 100% correct. That may be the most honest thing that’s been said about the campaign all week, is this was dominating all the headlines and would have if she would have stayed in this race.

Frederica Freyberg:
She was considered a frontrunner, though.

Zac Schultz:
Absolutely. When you were looking at –if you look at that Democratic primary in terms of lanes, there was clearly Francesca Hong in the more progressive far left lane. She had owned that for quite a while in this race, and it was a question of who could coalesce more of that centrist moderate candidacy. And Sara Rodriguez was taking that over. And now that it’s gone, it’s a question of who takes advantage of that. Where do those voters go?

Frederica Freyberg:
So now Governor Evers is reportedly talking about backing an effort to draw David Crowley back into the race. Why? What happened there with him?

Zac Schultz:
Well, David Crowley dropped out almost a couple of weeks ago, saying it was clear he wasn’t going to have a lane. It was assumed he was contesting with Rodriguez, saw her momentum and knew he couldn’t get there. Fundraising reports that just were filed show that he actually has plenty of cash on hand, a lot more than her significantly. If her campaign had been transparent from the beginning, there’s a question of whether he would have dropped out because he would have been significantly ahead of her. There are other centrists that are saying, “Hey, bring him back. He’s the next best person to take that mantle with Rodriguez out of the race.” And now it’s a question of whether he will do that and what will that look like?

Frederica Freyberg:
Yeah. Who else stands to gain?

Zac Schultz:
Well, Joel Brennan clearly says this is his moment to shine and people to hear his name for the first time if you’re not finely tuned into this race. Kelda Roys, Mandela Barnes, they all claim that they can benefit from this. Francesca Hong to a degree, because there were people that backed — that just want a Democrat who can win. And now she may have a more open race all the way to winning this primary if her main contender from the centrist candidacy falls apart.

Frederica Freyberg:
So meanwhile, Republican candidate Tom Tiffany not only has gobs of money comparatively, but this must be great for the GOP.

Zac Schultz:
Oh, they absolutely love this. Any time you see the other party falling apart on their own mistakes, missteps, then it’s good news for Tom Tiffany, because he’s had this whole opportunity all summer long to run positive ads. He’s got a ton of money in the bank, 2 million cash on hand, pretty much all of that coming from billionaires who have given to the party that have given to him. The billionaire loophole that he came on our air and criticized a few months ago he’s now taking advantage of but that’s politics. He’s definitely in a much better position. I did ask the Democratic candidates this week, can you overcome that after this primary? And they said, absolutely. Once we get past August, then we can start contrasting the record that he tries to portray versus his record attached to Trump.

Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile though the Republicans are airing ads talking about Francesca Hong. And what are they doing there?

Zac Schultz:
Well, they’re technically negative ads, but they’re airing them in Madison, Milwaukee to Francesca Hong’s base in an attempt to rile them up. We’ve seen groups play in Democratic primaries across the country in an effort to boost what they view as a weaker candidate, a more socialist, progressive candidate. There are lots of statements in Francesca Hong’s background that she owns that do not play well according to centrist, or perhaps in a regular contest in November.

Frederica Freyberg:
Have you ever seen anything like this in your coverage of politics in Wisconsin over the years?

Zac Schultz:
Not like this. We’ve seen campaigns fall apart. We’ve seen campaigns run out of money and be deep in debt. That’s not new. It’s the discord that it all came out and this back and forth throughout the week. If this had come out in February or March and those statements had been corrected, she probably could have survived and moved on because she still had support this week. Just this week, talking to people out in the field, she won the Ozaukee County Democratic straw poll with Francesca Hong in the audience. So the support was still there, but it was clear that she could not change the message away from her oversight of her own campaign to back to one being about the primary.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Well, Zac, thanks very much for being here.

Zac Schultz:
My pleasure.