MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is kicking off his campaign for governor with the Wisconsin College Republicans in Wausau on Wednesday night.
Tiffany was elected to Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in 2020, taking over the seat after Sean Duffy resigned. Tiffany has also served in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature.
The following is an edited transcript of the conversation between Tiffany and Wisconsin State Capitol Bureau Chief Vanessa Kjeldsen. It has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Vanessa Kjeldsen: What are your top priorities as governor?
Tom Tiffany: There’s a few of them. First of all, Governor Evers took down the signs, ‘Wisconsin is open for business’, first day that he was in office. And that has been reflected in the downward trend for our state. We’re in the bottom 10 states now for starting a new business… Education, we’ve fallen behind Mississippi. Behind Mississippi. That is unacceptable… Energy costs are among the highest in the Midwest now, used to be among the lowest. We’re making this conversion where we’re destroying our farmland with wind and solar panels.
VK: For energy, would you support nuclear in Wisconsin?
TT: I do, and I would. We’ve got some of the top minds in nuclear that are from Wisconsin. I mean, the former Miss America from Wausau is a nuclear engineer… But yeah, I think nuclear should be part of the portfolio.
VK: Have you spoken to President Donald Trump since launching your bid for governor?
TT: I have not. I talked to the president about a month and a half ago. We had a really good discussion. His big concern was in regards to the 7th Congressional [District]. Obviously, he’s concerned about– he wants to be able to keep Republicans in the majority in 2026 [in Congress].
VK: When you spoke with him, was he supportive of you running for governor?
TT: He just said, let me contemplate this, and let’s talk again at some point in the future.
VK: Less than 24 hours after your launch, Wisconsin Democrats are already running a campaign ad against you, calling you “tariff lover Tom Tiffany”. Do you support Donald Trump’s tariffs?
TT: Well, you can tell who the leader is by who they attack. And they’re coming after me full bore. And they’ll do that. They’ll have enormous amounts of money to be able to attack me. So I do support the president’s tariffs. And I would just ask, why do Democrats support Brazil and Canada, who have tariffs that are as much as 300% on products we produce here in Wisconsin?… I mean, most of our pharmaceuticals, made in China. A lot of our military hardware is made in China. We should not be dependent on China.
VK: Multiple times in Congress, you co-sponsored legislation to enact a six-week abortion ban. Do you still stand by that?
TT: So if you look at the current law in Wisconsin, it’s a 20-week bill or five months. That five-month bill, I voted for ten years ago. I support that law as it was written, and I will uphold it as governor.
VK: You promised to freeze property taxes, lower income taxes. Will you need to make up that money somewhere else?
TT: Wisconsin state government is going to have over $100 billion it’s going to take from the taxpayers… The state government does not have a revenue problem. It’s got a spending problem.
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