WASHINGTON – 7th District Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has not yet said whether he plans to join the GOP primary for governor. But he’s been happy to tease a run after pushing back his timeline for a potential announcement.
Tiffany recently tweeted out a picture of himself holding a crappie after a conservative website demanded that “all future Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates prove they know how to hold a fish.”
And he’s hinted at a potential statewide campaign in more concrete ways: The website domain name “tomtiffanyforgovernor.com” leads directly to his current congressional campaign site. That site’s homepage labels Tiffany a “proven conservative for Wisconsin.”
The hints are not unusual or new for the third-term congressman from Wisconsin’s northwestern 7th Congressional District, whose office is located in Wausau. But they represent the latest moves for one of the only Republicans still publicly considering a 2026 gubernatorial run. Tiffany recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he’d make his decision “after July.”
Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann was the first Republican to enter the race in May, and Bill Berrien, a Navy SEAL veteran and manufacturing CEO from Whitefish Bay, launched his own campaign earlier this month.
State Senate President Mary Felzkowski, former U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde and former U.S. Senate and governor candidate Tim Michels are also considering bids, though Tiffany is the only person in that group to publicly express interest in a gubernatorial campaign.
“I’m gonna make a decision after July here, and we’ll see,” Tiffany told the Journal Sentinel last week when asked about his thinking. He previously said he would make a decision after the April 1 state Supreme Court race before extending that timeline to the summer. “I’m steadily, methodically going through the process.”
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is expected to decide whether to seek reelection in the coming weeks. Tiffany has claimed that Evers’s decision won’t factor into his consideration of a gubernatorial run and said his choice “is not predicated on” who is running on the Republican side, either.
“It is, where can I do the most good for the people of the state of Wisconsin? Do I believe I’m the best candidate on our side to be able to win this race? That’s the decision points for me,” Tiffany said last week.
He’s repeatedly and publicly attacked Evers on both on social media and in his weekly constituent newsletter over immigration and Democrats’ pushback on President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Still, Tiffany’s moves are not new. He previously purchased website domain names as he considered a 2024 U.S. Senate bid against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, though he never launched a campaign. Multiple local GOP leaders in the 7th District have said they are uncertain Tiffany will make a move for governor.
Tiffany raised a little more than $147,000 in the first half of 2025 and had about $124,859 in cash on hand in his House campaign account, according to Federal Election Commission records. Schoemann raised a little over $424,000 since launching his campaign in May, and Berrien’s political action committee raked in more than $1 million before Berrien formally entered the race this month.
A spokeswoman for Tiffany this week called securing the gubernatorial website domain name “standard practice for campaigns and public officials” and said it would prevent the site “from being used for nefarious purposes.” The domain name, she said, was purchased in April 2023 — the same day Tiffany bought the domain names for a potential Senate run.
And the campaign threw cold water on any idea that the post featuring Tiffany holding the crappie was a subtle campaign announcement.
“Congressman Tiffany has not made a decision regarding a future run,” the spokeswoman said on July 21, “and any announcement will come at a later time.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 7th District’s Tom Tiffany teases potential run for Wisconsin governor
Reporting by Lawrence Andrea, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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