I drove across the entire state of Wisconsin.
Eau Claire. Green Bay. Milwaukee. I went everywhere they asked me to go and I talked to as many people as I could find. And here’s what I kept hearing.
People are tired.
Not fired up angry, not energized, not ready to march. Just tired. Tired of leaders who don’t act like leaders. Tired of watching the bar for basic decency keep getting lowered. Tired of being told to pick between two sides when one of the sides has completely lost the plot.
That’s what Tom Tiffany has done to Wisconsin.
Tom Tiffany is running for governor. He’s an election denier. He’s one of the people who voted against certifying the 2020 election and has spent years casting doubt on a system that works. He is now asking the people of Wisconsin to make him their governor. the person responsible for overseeing elections in their state. Think about that for a second.
David Crowley is running against him. Milwaukee County Executive. A man who actually believes in democracy and has said so clearly. He has said he will protect people’s ability to cast their ballots. He believes in free and fair elections. He will say it at the mountaintops, as he put it.
That should not be a controversial position for a candidate for governor. It used to not be.
And then there’s Derek Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd District. Another one. Another person who showed up at the Capitol on January 6th, who has been on the wrong side of history, and who goes back to his district and acts like nothing happened.
I want to tell you something about character. I think about John McCain. A woman at one of his town halls called Barack Obama a terrorist, a Muslim, tried to stoke fear about who he was. McCain shut it down immediately. Barack Obama is a good, decent man. A family man. I don’t agree with him on the issues, but that is who he is.
Donald Trump would have turned that woman into a rally chant. And he cleared the way for people like Tom Tiffany and Derek Van Orden to run for office without character being any part of the conversation.
I went to Wisconsin because the people there deserve better than that. Not better policy. Better people. Leaders who tell the truth about elections. Leaders who don’t point mobs at government buildings and then pretend it never happened.
The people I met in Eau Claire and Green Bay and Milwaukee. they’re good people. They live in communities that are diverse and complicated and real. Their kids go to school with kids whose parents vote completely differently. They want to live affordable lives. They want to be treated with dignity.
They deserve representatives who believe the same thing.
Wisconsin matters. Tiffany needs to lose. Van Orden needs to lose. I went to make the case in person and I’ll keep making it.
-Harry
Well done, Harry.
You are a gem to keep up your travels and to keep listening and reporting back to us. Thank ypu.