McCoshen & Ross on Wisconsin's Political Outlook for 2025

Frederica Freyberg:
So legislative Democrats made some gains but a state budget battle looms with a probable fight over whether to cut taxes or spend a $4 billion surplus. In Washington, look for President Donald Trump to act fast on his priorities. And then turn your attention back to Wisconsin for another supersized election for control of the state Supreme Court. The discussion of what’s ahead politically in the new year is teed up for our panelists. Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. And thanks for being here.

Bill McCoshen:
Happy New Year.

Frederica Freyberg:
So first to you, Bill. Let’s start with what we’re going to see out of the new Trump administration.

Bill McCoshen:
So I would say this is going to be the NASCAR start: all gas, no brakes. I expect to — more than, maybe several hundred executive orders on day one. I expect them to come forward with a reconciliation package, probably in February, that includes immigration and energy. A second one later in the year on government reform and taxes. They have two opportunities. There are team votes, including for speaker. We’re on to round two on that already. Hopefully Mike Johnson will get that and we can get back to business. But I think there will be a fast and furious start for the Trump administration. I think the four years between his terms, they’ve learned a lot. They knew what they did wrong in the first term, and they’ll be more prepared this time.

Frederica Freyberg:
So it’s a hold on to your hats moment. Scot, do you think Democrats will work with the Trump administration in any measure?

Scot Ross:
I really hope not because the things that they’re going to do are going to, you know, dismantle the social safety net, attack the rights of people. You know, I mean, we’re going to have mass deportations. We’re going to have trans people, you know, bullied into suicide with their things. I mean, it’s going to be a bloodbath. And also that they can raid our treasury and give billionaires even more money, you know? And so I think — so I hope Democrats are not up to it and they shouldn’t be, because I’ll tell you, I got an A, B, C rule and I’m going to give you the B, which is bipartisanship is BS. Donald Trump, you know, in 2016, he said, oh — hinted that he might prosecute his political enemies. In 2020, he got a little bit more aggressive. In 2024, he went all in on, you know, on attacking Democrats. And that was it. I’m not working with the Democrats. And he did better this time.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you don’t think it’s incumbent on Democrats to acknowledge the electoral popularity of Donald Trump after having apparently misunderstood their base?

Scot Ross:
Well, you know, I’ll tell this — a little story. So a couple weeks before the election, my wife is like, “You know, I don’t think she’s going to win.” And I’m like, “I don’t want to hear it” because, like, I’ll live in that world if it exists. I’m going to live in denial. Like there’s nothing I’m going to do about it. And after, I go to her and I was like, you know, hat in hand, I’m like, what happened? She’s like the joy thing. She’s like, we have a comfortable life, you know? Do you feel joy? And I’m like, well, when I’m around you. But generally, no. So why were people going to feel joy, you know? Who felt joy? The people who were on the gravy train, you know, and suddenly were able to, you know, be in a position where they could be president, you know, and the consultants and all that sort of thing. It wasn’t, you know, they weren’t — it wasn’t a reflection of reality as it turns out. I bought into it, but I was wrong.

Bill McCoshen:
I think Democrats missed the signal. The voters were telling us something very specific. Trump picked up on it early on, and he capitalized on it. And that’s why he actually won 231 congressional seats. And he won 57 Senate seats. So I think there is some room for bipartisanship in this coming Congress.

Frederica Freyberg:
Bill, how do you think day one priorities like mass deportations, apparently help people with the cost of groceries?

Bill McCoshen:
Well, I think that’s one function. He got elected on that. There’s no question about that. Whether it was — the Trump people think it was his number one issue. I still think the economy was the number one issue. And both of those things are going to get done in the first six months. But it probably — you’re not going to see massive reduced grocery prices in the first couple months. But if you haven’t by summer, I think that’s a pretty good start for the Trump campaign.

Scot Ross:
I mean, I think the problem is, is that like, when you talk about bipartisanship, that this is not the Republican Party that deals with bipartisanship anymore. You know, there are Democrats who are thinking, oh, I still want a Republican Party where we can come together and put a man on the moon, you know. The Republican Party basically now denies that we even landed on the moon, essentially, in that way. There is no room for bipartisanship with them. Democrats do that at their peril. And again, Republicans have been saying no to Democrats since they were rolling old man Cheney off the dais on January 20th, 2009. They have never worked with the Democrats and suddenly there, you know — suddenly that’s — they’ve paid no price for it basically is what I was going to say. So why would they do it now?

Frederica Freyberg:
I want to come back here to Wisconsin and what you call the Super Bowl of politics, that being the spring election for state Supreme Court. Why is it the Super Bowl?

Bill McCoshen:
This is the biggest election. It’s for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Currently, it’s a 4-3 progressive majority. One of the four progressives is not running for re-election. And so there’s an opportunity for conservatives to take back the majority. And if they don’t get it this time, the next opportunity doesn’t present itself until 2028. So there’s — progressives will have this majority for some time, and they could undo things like Act 10. They could undo school choice. They could undo some of the welfare reforms and many, many other things. So it is the Super Bowl for conservatives and Republicans, and it’s incumbent upon us to get behind Brad Schimel quickly, early. He’s a battle-tested candidate. He’s run statewide twice before. He was successful in the first bid. He was unsuccessful in the second bid, primarily because there was a third-party candidate in here who prevented him from beating Josh Kaul. So I think he’s a strong candidate. It’s going to be the most expensive race in Wisconsin history.

Frederica Freyberg:
How does Susan Crawford win this?

Scot Ross:
Oh, I think she’s a terrific candidate. She’s ten years a prosecutor. You know, she’s — then went into private practice where she protected workers’ rights, abortion rights and voting rights. And then she went on to be a respected judge, which she is now. Brad Schimel, on the other hand, is a partisan hack. I mean, he was fired.

Bill McCoshen:
He’s a judge in Waukesha County.

Scot Ross:
Yes. And he’s a judge because he and Scott Walker, you know, in the lame duck after they both got fired for their performance. You know, voters fired them. He appointed him a judge. The fact is is that Brad Schimel, you know, bungled prosecutions of sex offenders, the rape kit backlog was massive under him. And, you know, I’ll give you, I’ll give you another one. You know, 71 or 72 counties begged, they passed resolutions begging Brad Schimel and Scott Walker to do something about the opioid crisis. Brad Schimel, after being the only state candidate in Wisconsin history to take a PAC check from Purdue Pharma, the big opioid kingpin. He refused to prosecute, absolutely refused to prosecute. And it wasn’t a lot of money. It was only $250. But like the question is, can you be bought for that little or did you actually think Purdue shouldn’t be held accountable? Josh Kaul, on the other hand, $750 million to help the effects of that has come into the state of Wisconsin because Brad Schimel is no longer the attorney general.

Bill McCoshen:
I think Democrats are going to be careful what they wish for here. This Act 10 case that was adjudicated in Dane County Circuit Court is now in the appellate court, could make it to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. A year ago, I think Scot and I will agree on this, Janet Protasiewicz sort of changed the rules on judicial elections. Used to be that judicial candidates couldn’t take positions on cases that might come before them. Janet Protasiewicz erased that bright line on whether it was the maps or abortion or a variety of other things. So Schimel is going to have to take advantage of that and tell people Act 10 is going to be repealed if you don’t — if you elect Susan Crawford. School choice, if you choose a charter school or a choice school or open enroll your kid, that could all go away if Susan Crawford is elected. So he’s going to have to motivate the same voters that elected Donald Trump. The low propensity voters, the mid propensity who typically don’t turn out in April.

Scot Ross:
So it’s going to be about — we’re suddenly going to, you know, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is going to suddenly have purview over immigration and transgender issues. That’s going to be what Brad Schimel’s campaign. He’s already, he’s already talking about those things. It’s going to be the sort of divisive, you know, destructive campaign that we saw from Trump, that we saw from Schimel. I do not believe Schimel will be, will be elected in any way, shape or form, mostly because, you know, the credentials of Susan Crawford. You know, the bad stuff that we have with Brad Schimel, but also the fact that it is going to be insane what the Republicans do and Democrats are always motivated once we’ve lost the big battle to clean things up. And I think that’s, you know, where we’re at.

Bill McCoshen:
Well, ratings for a lot of progressive shows are at their all-time low. I think Democrats are demotivated by what happened in November. And I think that will continue through April.

Frederica Freyberg:
We have a lot more to talk about and we will in the coming months. Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross, thank you.

Scot Ross:
Thank you.

Bill McCoshen:
Thank you.