“... when confronted by small men doing big and stupid things, we need to resist with all the wit and creativity we can muster...” Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author

Given all the important decisions, priority choices, complicated issues and budget details a governor must deal with, it should be obvious that Wisconsin doesn’t need “small men” leading the state.
Tom Tiffany’s own statements and past actions show he is a small town, small-minded, small businessman with little understanding of – or concern for – the real problems facing the people of Wisconsin.

Tom’s “solutions,” from his campaign website, are partisan soundbites, based on false or misleading information, that don’t provide realistic remedies for the real world problems people face.

Wisconsin doesn’t need attack ad rhetoric, fear mongering and culture-war division. Wisconsin needs leadership that is willing to seek rational, evidence based solutions that will actually help people.
As an example, Tiffany says he is running for governor “to make sure every Wisconsin family has the same shot at the American Dream he was given.”

The next sentence says, “He has stood up to un-elected  bureaucrats and coastal elites in Washington, D.C.”

Apparently Tiffany believes opposing public services, and the civil servants who run those programs, will somehow help people be more financially successful.

But in the real world government, and the wide variety of essential public services, are the foundation on which people build the American Dream. Most people who have achieved some success got there because of public support programs. Without public schools, grants and loans to go to college, small business loans, crop insurance, farm subsidies, VA or FHA home mortgages, guarantees for your bank account, Medicare, Social Security or numerous other support services most people would be considerably worse off.

As an example,Tiffany voted against extending the pandemic Affordable Care Act subsidies. This negatively impacted about 277,000 Wisconsin residents with ACA insurance by increasing their premiums.

Tiffany also voted to cut Medicaid funding, which is critical for funding rural hospitals and clinics.
Wisconsin does not need an ignoramus as governor who doesn’t understand the importance and purpose of government, or the impact of government services on the economy and people’s lives.
Nor do we need a governor who has prostrated himself before the most authoritarian, undemocratic, incompetent and corrupt president in our 250 year history.

As a congressman, Tiffany has voted to support Trump, and his destructive agenda, without exception. There is no reason to believe that Tiffany’s unqualified loyalty to Trump will change if he is elected governor. He will continue to do Trumps bidding. Donald Trump will become the de facto governor of Wisconsin.

Another example of Tiffany’s fake “solutions” is his campaign pledge to end the “death tax” (a derogatory term for the federal estate tax). This is bizarre given that Wisconsin doesn’t have an estate tax or an inheritance tax and a governor has no power to change federal tax law.

The federal estate tax only applies to estates of more than $15 million for individuals or $30 million if married. Nationwide only 0.14% of estates pay any federal estate taxes. There is no federal inheritance tax.

So why would Tiffany be campaigning on a nonexistent problem for the vast majority of Wisconsinites?
One can only assume it fits his anti-government ideology and is a proven soundbite to rally the ignorant Republican base.

Tiffany’s website, and his email newsletters, are full of these kinds of inaccurate, misleading and inflammatory statements. His schtick is to attack Democrats, liberals, immigrants, transgender athletes, environmentalists, grey wolves or any other scapegoat to hype fear and division.

Attack ad rhetoric trumps any civil or rational discussion of public policy.

Tiffany’s campaign website provides proof. He says “under Democratic leadership...Wisconsin is slipping down the woke and broke path...” He “will stand up for Wisconsin values...where common sense beats woke nonsense.”

He promises to protect farmland from “...being destroyed by wind and solar projects” and being taken over by “Communist China.”

According to Tiffany our school children are bring “brainwashed to believe that some of their classmates are “oppressors” and others are “victims...” And this is just a sampling of his ridiculous hyperbole.
Nowhere in Tiffany’s website “solutions” is there any substantive, serious discussions of how to address inadequate school funding, unaffordable childcare, the high cost of healthcare, housing costs, food prices, student loan debt, data centers, climate change or our many environmental problems. His unrealistic, non-solution is to “cut burdensome regulations to make housing, childcare, and healthcare more affordable.” But complex problems, with multiple causes, are rarely solved with simplistic solutions.

But we all can be glad that “Tom will stand up for our hunters and anglers, because Wisconsin wouldn’t be Wisconsin without hunting and fishing.”

By this he means removing protections for the gray wolf. According to the DNR, Wisconsin has an estimated 1,162 gray wolves and 2 million deer. Hunting and fishing has been declining for years.
Only 11.7% of Wisconsin residents bought hunting licenses in 2025 and approximately 20% participate in recreational fishing. Other sources say about 60% of Wisconsinites participate in other forms of outdoor recreation.

Again, Tiffany is more interested in culture-war rhetoric than fact-based public policy.

Tiffany says he will “prioritize education, healthcare and transportation in his first budget.”

Unfortunately, his priorities, based on his voting record in the Wisconsin legislature and Congress are not to support public education. He has repeatedly voted to cut funding for K-12 schools (and increase funding for private voucher schools). He co-sponsored legislation to abolish the U.S Department of Education and supported Trump’s budget cuts and executive orders on education. In addition, he promises to “freeze property taxes” further reducing funding for public schools. He voted against free meals for school children.

Obviously, Wisconsin doesn’t need Tiffany’s harmful priorities.

We have already discussed Tiffany’s healthcare “priorities” and they won’t be good for most Wisconsinites.

He doesn’t say what his transportation agenda will be but given his irrational opposition to solar and wind energy, it is unlikely electric vehicles will get any support. Nor will mass transit and bike lanes will definitely be “woke.”

So we are left with more highways, more carbon belching cars and more climate altering pollution.
The Democratic candidates all had rational, evidence-based solutions that will actually help people. Tiffany offers empty soundbites. The better choice in November is obvious.