THE PRIMARY IS OVER. NOW WHAT?
Friends,
I want to say the most important thing first. On the morning after, whoever our nominee is, they are our nominee. Full stop. The candidate you supported may not be the one on the ballot, and that is how primaries are supposed to work. What we cannot afford is a single week of sulking while Tiffany consolidates. The day after the primary, we get to work electing the next Democratic Governor of Wisconsin.
This race is not left versus right. It's wrong versus right. It is Wisconsin families versus a career politician who has spent that career serving Donald Trump and a handful of billionaires. We need Democrats, yes, but we also need independents who are tired of the noise and Republicans who are quietly embarrassed by what their party has become. All three of those groups can be moved by the same simple idea: don't let the flannel fool you, Tom Tiffany is not looking out for us.
Tom Tiffany is a Trump toady in an everyman costume. Our job is to pull the costume off. Below is the case, every claim sourced, so you and your volunteers can speak with confidence and survive a hostile fact-check.
THE CORE MESSAGE
Tom Tiffany is disguising a deeply partisan record behind flannel shirts and folksy ads. He tried to overturn Wisconsin's vote, put his name on a national six-week abortion ban, and backed Trump policies that raise costs and threaten health care and food assistance. He has spent his career fighting for an ideological agenda, not solving problems for Wisconsin families.
THE EVIDENCE, these issues may vary in terms of how they resonate in your area. Feel free to pick out what will hit hardest with your voters.
He tried to overturn the 2020 election. He was the only member of Wisconsin's delegation to sign the Texas brief seeking to throw out our state's results (Supreme Court Docket), voted to object to certified results, and in 2026 still repeats vote-fraud claims the courts rejected (WPR article). The governor certifies our elections. This is fitness to govern.
Tariff Tom and affordability. Given a clean, bipartisan chance to stop the Canada tariffs, with six Republicans crossing over to do it, he voted no (https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202665, context: Reuters article). He talks about lowering costs while backing the taxes that raise them.
Health care and rural hospitals. He voted for Trump's 2025 budget law (https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025190). Analysis of the version he supported projected tens of thousands of Wisconsinites losing coverage and rural hospitals, including one in his own district, at risk (WPR article). He then voted against a bipartisan ACA subsidy extension that 17 Republicans supported (https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202611).
Food assistance. The budget bill he backed was projected to cost Wisconsin hundreds of millions in food aid and put tens of thousands at risk, in a state where more than 700,000 residents, including 270,000 children, rely on FoodShare (WPR article).
He fought a tax-and-school deal four in five Wisconsinites supported. He worked against the bipartisan Evers-Republican agreement and could not say what he would cut instead (WPR Article).
His everyman image is megadonor-funded. Of his $8.72 million first-half haul, more than $6 million came through the state party, which took $6.5 million from just three donors, the Uihleins and Diane Hendricks (WPR Article). Note for volunteers: these transfers are legal. Say bankrolled, not illegal.
FOR THE NORTHERN COUNTIES ESPECIALLY
His League of Conservation Voters lifetime score is 1 percent, with zero pro-environment votes four years running (https://www.lcv.org/moc/tom-tiffany/). He twice rewrote Wisconsin mining law to favor mining companies and called his spot on the conservation "dishonor roll" a badge of honor (https://www.wpr.org/environment/trump-ally-tom-tiffany-fought-gop-causes-legislature-now-hes-set-his-sights-congress).
ONE MORE
He was one of only 14 members of Congress, and the only Wisconsinite, to vote against making Juneteenth a federal holiday (NPR article).
The full sourced brief, with every vote and the accuracy caveats, is attached. Please share the arguments freely.
We have a nominee to elect and a toady to retire. Let's get to work :)
In solidarity,
Kevin Welch
Vote4Dems.org
920-309-1046
