MADISON – David Crowley says he thinks he’s had “more whiplash than anybody else in this in the past week.”
It’s a steep competition.
On July 8, the Milwaukee County executive ended his campaign for governor, saying it had “become clear” he would not be the Democratic nominee. The following day, he endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, calling her “the strongest candidate to defeat Tom Tiffany in November.”
Rodriguez had just announced a $1 million ad buy – by far the largest in the field at the time.
Three days after he endorsed Rodriguez, the lieutenant governor publicly announced she had fired her campaign manager after “discovering serious mismanagement and inaccuracies” in campaign finance reports. She’d told Crowley earlier that day, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and he told her he’d stick with her.
On July 13, Rodriguez held a news conference at her Madison campaign office, where she told reporters she had about $200,000 in her campaign account. Her campaign told the Journal Sentinel she believed she’d had $1.5 million on hand the previous week when her campaign announced the ad buy.
The revelation that Rodriguez’s campaign finances were in dire straits opened a window for state Sen. Kelda Roys and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan to breathe new life into their campaigns, which have consistently trailed democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes in polls.
Democratic candidates continued to scramble into July 16, the day after their campaign finance reports became publicly available. Rodriguez’s showed a cash balance of $34,991, but also reported $152,276 in outstanding debts. Her report was amended later that day to show a $643,207 balance – a change her campaign later said was an error.
Rodriguez withdrew from the race the morning of July 17. Within hours, senior Democratic sources confirmed to the Journal Sentinel and others that party insiders were working to persuade Crowley to return to the race – and that Gov. Tony Evers was likely to endorse him.
Crowley’s return became official before the day was done – and the governor’s endorsement followed July 18. A campaign spokesman said Crowley has raised more than $125,000 since returning to the race.
Crowley spoke with the Journal Sentinel a few hours after he held a rally in Milwaukee to relaunch his campaign. The following is edited for length and clarity.
A week ago you got out because you didn’t see a path. What are the key things that have changed? And what is the path you see now?
I was supporting the best candidate at the time, and I believed that she was the best candidate to win this race. Now, don’t get me wrong – I still believed that I was the best candidate when I was dropping out of the race. But where we were, it was based off of the information that we had at the time.
But as you can imagine, every day since that day, something has changed in this campaign, in this entire election cycle. The lieutenant governor called me Sunday to give me a heads up, and I told her, I’m going to be with you, going to stick with you.
Was I upset? Was I disappointed in everything? Absolutely. But she was still in this race, and she gave her press conference that Monday, and I’ll be honest, I received so many calls since Monday. Me and my wife, we were saying no … but even after we told everybody no, someone told us to to think on it. And we prayed about it.
We felt like this would be a good time to get back into this race because it’s not about me. This race is not about the candidates that are currently running. This is about the people of Wisconsin, and so I truly believe that the number one goal that we all share in this Democratic primary is that we have to defeat Tom Tiffany, and I truly believe that I am still the best candidate to defeat Tom Tiffany.
To get Gov. Evers’ endorsement is is absolutely an honor, but I also think that it speaks to my level of leadership that I’ve had as a county executive, as a state representative, as a staffer, and as a community organizer.
To get the endorsement from Gov. Evers, who has been the steady, calm strength we have needed for the past eight years, not only defeating Scott Walker but defending our democracy, getting us through the pandemic, and being the best goalie Democrats could have so a Republican-controlled Legislature couldn’t get their way … it means a lot.
But now our job is to translate that to the voters of the state of Wisconsin, and we have been able to get a lot of momentum.
What does it say about your view of the rest of the field that you didn’t think, “Hey, there’s someone else here that I should throw my support behind,” rather than, “I’m going to get back in myself”?
I’m a kid from one of the poorest communities in the city of Milwaukee, possibly even the state of Wisconsin, in the country, right? I’ve had the opportunity to be a legislative staffer, understanding how the process works, being a state representative, and building relationships across the state of Wisconsin and across the aisle, and as county executive, I represent 19 different municipalities.
I don’t just to get to do whatever I want. I have to make sure that we are doing the best work possible and making the best decisions on behalf of the million residents and on behalf of those 19 municipalities.
None of the candidates, while I’ve had the opportunity to work with them in their different roles, none of them has the experience of running government, of getting pieces of legislation passed that’s going to directly impact families across this state like we did with Act 12.
So, for me, it was just the experience and the relationships that I’ve built, but also thinking about the future of Wisconsin and what is needed to build the necessary coalition between the different factions that we have along the political spectrum in order to defeat this extreme MAGA agenda in November.
You talked about the Republican Governors Association ad buy today. Why do you believe Republicans want to run against Francesca Hong in November?
I don’t think that it has to necessarily be about Fran, but we should all be cautious, right? The Republicans would be cautious if Democrats were spending in their primary election, so we should absolutely be cautious about Republicans spending money in our Democratic primary.
At the end of the day, they are meddling in our primary election because they want to put their thumb on the scale, and so it doesn’t matter what candidate they’re supporting. We should all be up in arms when we’re seeing our political opponents trying to create confusion related to what is happening in this primary.
What I’m trying to speak to is the fact that they’re doing everything they can to make sure they can keep Tom Tiffany in office. Now, does that mean supporting Fran means that? I don’t necessarily believe that, but we should all be cautious about the fact that this is happening right now.
That’s a $2.2 million ad buy. How do you plan to overcome that, if you are viewing that effectively as an ad promoting one of your opponents?
I wouldn’t have gotten into this race if I didn’t believe that we will be able to get the resources needed to win this race. Gov. Evers’ endorsement absolutely helps with that, and with the local elected officials and the labor unions also endorsing and supporting this campaign is going to help us get the necessary resources.
People need to understand there’s different types of power, and the two types of power that really affect elections is people power and money power. And we know that the Republicans, they have access to money.
So we need to make sure that we can compete when it comes down to those dollars, but more importantly, we have to build the capacity of our supporters, build the capacity of volunteers to make sure that we’re knocking on doors, that we’re building relationships, having face-to-face conversations to make sure that people really understand who Tom Tiffany is and what’s at stake.
You’re in the middle of the pack, comparatively, with cash on hand, but you were outraised by every candidate except Missy Hughes in the first half of the year. What assurances do you have that that’s going to pick up rapidly?
I can say that it’s already picked up, with the fact that we have the ability to get back into this race. There’s been a resurgence of energy from current supporters as well as new supporters because when I did drop out of this race, I got a lot of publicity, and I think a lot of people seeing what was going on and seeing what I brought to the table were like, “Oh wow, he’s a really good candidate.”
So now, with the support that we have received from local electeds, from community members, as well as Gov. Evers, we know our job is to make sure that we’re building capacity to bring in as many resources and as many people as possible.
Would you like to see other candidates get out?
I’m never going to tell anybody to get out of this race. And I think that as far as where we are today, if we were talking about consolidating the the vote, let’s be honest, this should have happened a long time ago. People have already started voting and sending in their absentee ballots, and so, I’m not going to tell anybody to get out of this race.
My hope is that as we travel across this state, as I talk to voters, I’m going to earn their support, talking about what I have done for them as a state rep, what I’ve done for them as a Milwaukee County executive, and what I will do for them as the next governor.
The Barnes campaign has brought up the the county health insurance contract issue from February. You didn’t face a lot of attacks from the other candidates before, because this was a pretty positive race at that point. How do you plan to respond to questions about the way you’ve led the county?
Let’s be very clear – I’m the only one that can actually be attacked on the receipts that I have, because I’m the only one in this race that has actually run government. So if people want to attack me because I run the second-largest government in the state of Wisconsin, that has over 4,000 employees, and where we’re self-insured, and nobody lost health care insurance, right? I think it’s extremely important to point that out.
But you know, people are always going to attack somebody who has receipts, and so at the end of the day, I just hope voters look at all the candidates to figure out what they have done that actually benefited their lives.
What do you think Gov. Evers’ endorsement tells voters about how you would approach governing the state?
I’m always going to do what’s right, and Gov. Evers always talks about doing what’s right for kids, doing what’s right for the entire state. He’s not really a political guy, right? He’s never been a political hack.
He’s been all about making sure that he can be the steady hand to make sure that people can survive what Republicans have been throwing at the wall, and what we are seeing at the federal level, and getting us through the COVID-19 pandemic.
I want them to see that I govern by bringing people to the table, that I govern by talking to both Democrats and Republicans, that I govern by actually listening first and acting second.
This is really about making sure that communities all across this state have a seat at the table. I was told that if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu, and there are so many rural communities, so many school districts, so many businesses, so many entrepreneurs, so many seniors, young people who feel like they’ve been on the menu because they have not been engaged.
So I think that Gov. Evers’ endorsement speaks not just to my my leadership, but it speaks to the integrity that I have and the dedication that I have to being a great public servant as a county executive, but also as the next governor of Wisconsin.
What do you say to voters who look at this and feel like, it’s power players getting involved, it’s shady backroom deals, it’s things they don’t like about politics by bringing in this endorsement late in the game?
Well, I think that there are a lot of people, because they don’t know, they fill the void with a lot of, quite frankly nonsense, right?
I’ve heard, oh, he’s the establishment candidate. I mean, I’m a Black man from the city of Milwaukee. People who live in Wisconsin or don’t live in Wisconsin, when they think establishment, they don’t think about a picture of me, right?
But the thing is, everybody has the opportunity to support whatever candidate they want to support. So if people want to ask Gov. Evers why he made his decision, I think people need to ask him directly. I can’t speak for the governor on why he made his decision. I just know that it’s an extreme honor to have his support, and my job is to use that support to earn the votes.
I don’t expect people to just come my way just because the governor said, “he’s a good guy and I support him.” I still look forward to traveling across this state for the next 24 days, leaving no stone unturned, to earn every single vote. And I want to earn the vote based off of what I’m bringing to the table, what I’ve done as county executive, and by the coalition that we’re going to build to defeat Tom Tiffany, Tom “Terrible” Tiffany, this upcoming November.
What the other Democratic candidates said about David Crowley’s return to the race
The remaining Democrats in the race to the Aug. 11 primary reacted to Crowley’s reentry into the race.
State Rep. Francesca Hong
The Madison lawmaker said she welcomes Crowley’s return to the race and will remain focused on building a winning coalition.
“Competition is good for democracy, and voters deserve a substantive debate about the future of our state,” Hong said in a statement. “Our campaign will remain focused on building the working-class coalition it will take to defeat Tom Tiffany and deliver permanent affordability for Wisconsin families.”
In response to the governor’s endorsement, Hong said she respects his decision but “the real power belongs to Wisconsin voters, and they have made their preference clear, too.”
“We are the leading campaign because people are ready for bold, working-class leadership that meets the urgency of this moment,” she said.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes
In a statement, Barnes campaign manager Darby O’Connor said Crowley “left this race for a reason.”
“He and his allies spent nearly a million dollars but gained absolutely no traction and was stuck in the low single digits,” O’Connor said.
“With just three weeks until Election Day and after nearly 70,000 people have voted, this Hail Mary serves no purpose other than playing spoiler and handing our state to Trump’s handpicked candidate in Tom Tiffany.”
State Sen. Kelda Roys
“We need to move forward and unite behind the strongest candidate to beat Tom Tiffany and deliver a Democratic Legislature, which is Kelda Roys,” said Roys campaign spokesman Jalen Knuteson.
“We have been on TV statewide for over a month and still have more cash on hand than most of the field, the most endorsements by far, and the most momentum.”
Former Tony Evers cabinet official Joel Brennan
“Joel Brennan is in this race to win it,” Brennan campaign manager Sarah Abel said.
“Wisconsin needs a candidate who can beat Tom Tiffany in November and get to work for Wisconsin families from day one. That was true yesterday and it’s still true today – no matter who else is in or out. Joel will continue making that case directly to the people who have the power to decide: the voters of Wisconsin.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Q&A with governor candidate David Crowley. A week of ‘whiplash’
Reporting by Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
