Who’s Afraid of Tom Tiffany?
On Tuesday, April 14, Citizen Action Wisconsin hosted a virtual governor’s forum (you can watch it here!) There were a lot of things to take away from the evening, and a lot of things that deserve to be talked about. A big one is that everyone except Missy Hughes is talking a big populist game, irrespective of their ability or past efforts to govern in that way. It kind of makes me appreciate Hughes more for her uniqueness. She is someone who knows who she is - even though I know I don’t want to vote for her.
A second big takeaway is that the majority of the field has no interest in answering what we have posed is a particularly important question for all of the Democrat candidates: “what will you do differently as a governor than Tony Evers?” We at Milwaukee Beaglehave made our frustrations with that guy known, but even still, we don’t expect any candidate to grab the mic and talk mad shit. There is, however, an opportunity to recognize failures from the administration and discuss how to not repeat them going forward. Credit where it is due, Kelda Roys’ answer provides the blueprint.
“I believe the question was how will my approach to governing differ from that of Tony Evers.” She says, with not-insignificant shade at Crowley and Rodriguez for ducking the question, “I want to start by saying how grateful I am to Governor Evers for providing a veto pen for so many important things from reproductive freedoms to LGBTQ equality. But I think my approach to governing is different… If we want to see a politics that reflects us and where everyone is able to thrive, we need a governor who is going to use power. We are going to have a tiny window of opportunity, and I intend to use power to make our lives better. That is a huge difference.”
I could use the whole quote but it’s kinda long, really though that is an article that a lot of people should be writing, but for now I don’t have to. Rather, today I think we should talk about the real winner of the forum. Sadly it is not any one of the 7 candidates in the Democratic field. Between the tornados and flooding, and the low energy of the virtual gathering I don’t know that any of them definitively will use that evening to gain ground. No, I think the real winner of the evening had to be Representative Tom Tiffany.
If I Were Tom Tiffany I Would Have Left The Debate Feeling Amazing
Most candidates invoked his name as they made clear that they were the ones best equipped to face this existential threat. Sara Rodriguez name dropped him in her opening argument! Clearly he is a force to be reckoned with… right? Surely he is a much more fearsome competitor to the Democratic coalition than Tim Michaels, Scott Walker, Eric Hovde, Brittany Kinser, and any number of failed conservative Supreme Court nominees that have lost statewide races in the last decade. Well I am not so sure, this is my best understanding of what it is he is bringing to this race:
He is a fixture in Wisconsin GOP politics. This does likely give him a credibility boost over the aforementioned right wing failures. He spent a good amount of time in the legislature, and then 6 years in the US House of Representatives. I am not going to give him much credit for his political wins however, because as every good Democrat has already admitted our maps are gerrymandered to hell. A washing machine with a red elephant sticker slapped on it could win with those maps.
He has gone to war with the DNR. As a legislator from the northwoods, Tiffany understands that we have to fucking wreck our beautiful state to make 20ish people get hella rich. He has fought to expand logging, pit mining, and fracking. He has also been a vocal advocate for Enbridge as they fight to expand their oil pipeline across his district. None of these are popular, all of these hurt all of us. One might be tempted to see him as a capable soldier for the right on account of this. It is not my place to say that Tiffany is a true believer in the cause, or that he is simply a grifter. Regardless, he has made a lot of money selling out the environment.
Republican Nonsense. Governing as a conservative has never been more embarrassing than it is now. When Tiffany made the jump to national politics in 2020 he happily clothed himself in Trumpism. He is a member of the absolutely real “Anti-Woke Caucus,” a precursor to DOGE with a direct line from Stephen Miller. He made a spectacle of himself before the nation during the Republican National Convention in 2024 and tied the entire movement to our state’s identity.
What is he without daddy Trump? Tiffany entered the spotlight during the Tea Party/Scott Walker era for Wisconsin, and he has always reflected it. What remains to be seen is how the image of conservatism in that era is framed in this new Trumpist regime. Do not misunderstand, Tiffany has been a Trump simp from the jump, but if Trump’s approval rating continues to falter as I suspect it will, we may see Tiffany pivot to his roots. Whether or not he is able to distance himself from Trump will be the result of poor Democratic messaging, and a media failure.
That last point brings us to the ultimate conclusion. Without going through a total biography like you can read here, or here - trust me, he isn't that interesting - it is plain to see that Tom Tiffany isn’t some terrifying giant coming down from the mountains to thwart a Democratic hopeful, he is just a guy. Furthermore he doesn't have the best support network backing him up. The Wisconsin GOP is in fucking shambles, and the best they could do for their trashbag Supreme Court candidate was “trans kids playing sports.” They have nothing, and the legislators in the party are proving this every day.
So Are We Gonna Have A Trifecta Or Not?
I have been Daria-levels of cynical around this WISDEMS trifecta rallying call. It is just something we have heard for years and have yet to see. With the absolute clobbering in the State Supreme Court race, I think I may have finally come around. Trump is the Republican Party, and Trump is unpopular. That whole side is full of racist freaks, and that doesn’t speak to Wisconsin in general. So, armed with new maps, and the mandate to reject what is happening at a National level, I say sure, we will take the legislature. But for some reason that optimism hasn’t been seen in the governor’s race. Candidates are moving like they alone are capable of claiming the governor's office, and I think this is backwards.
Even the mostly very correct Kelda Roys overhyped Tiffany in her closing argument of the governors forum: “we need somebody who can win, and it doesn’t matter if we flip the Assembly and flip the Senate if we lose the governorship to Tom Tiffany and make no mistake even in a good Democratic year that is unfortunately a risk.”
I cannot make these numbers make sense. Thanks to previous Democratic powerbrokers inability to wield power (as Roys had just finished pointing out,) we still have unfair maps that tip scales against Democrats. If we can believe that there are enough Democratic votes to carry these legislative races, do we not see those votes including the top of the ticket as well?
Voters are eager to reject Donald Trump through down ballot races and in the process that will mean telling shills like Tiffany to hit the bricks.
Stop Wasting Your Time
This moment right now is the most exciting time for socialist and progressive movements. We have a mandate for change much like we did nationally in 2008 when Joe Biden was elected as Vice President, and again when Joe Biden was elected regular President in 2020. In both of those moments people fought and organized for a vision of the government that would make life better for the people, and we didn’t get it. We won those elections, obviously, but coming out of the dark Bush Jr. and Trump 1.0 eras, corporate Democratic voters trusted boring centrists with that potential, and centrists wasted it.
In this brief window we Democrats are riding a wave of support. Through spirited primary races we can identify and nominate the candidates with most willingness to use power and make change. When we focus on the other party, and things like “electibility” we are wasting time that should be going towards building out that best image for the future. Candidates are already throwing around Tom Tiffany’s name like he is the final boss, but we have to put our pants on first.
Last week, Sara Rodriguez threw some mud at both Barnes and Hong (who are both beating her in poll after poll,) saying they would lose to Tom Tiffany. Not only does this overly inflate Tiffany as a threat, it does so to disparage her peers in the race, and betrays her low opinion of the people in Wisconsin. Tossing around this sort of speculation based only on the notion that she won Waukesha is foolish. It also shows that Democrats like Rodriguez are more than willing to take Milwaukee and Madison votes for granted and I just don’t like it. I think it’s a losing strategy from a middling campaign. She could be spending that time talking about all the money she made as an Advocate Aurora executive! That would at least be informative.
I also don’t like that she said that because it makes me want to defend Mandela Barnes, and I don’t want to do that!
