Tom Tiffany speaks during a campaign event in Wausau. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — It took about 25 minutes after the polls closed at 8:00 PM for the call, but Tom Tiffany has officially been declared the winner of the GOP primary for Governor.
The 7th Congressional District Representative jumped out to an early 92-point lead with about 10 percent of the vote in, prompting major outlets to call the race within minutes of the polls closing.
About ten minutes later, Tiffany issued the following statement: “I want to thank Wisconsinites across our state for putting their trust in me. This fight is bigger than any one party. It’s bigger than any one candidate. This fight is about Wisconsin and protecting the state we know and love. It’s about lowering property taxes, returning the surplus to you, getting utility costs under control, and letting hardworking Wisconsinites keep more of what they earn. Let’s move Wisconsin forward, together.”
In addition to President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Tiffany had little opposition in the Republican Primary. Candidates Josh Schoemann and Bill Berrien dropped out of the race months ago and didn’t make the ballot. Andrew Menske, a Milwaukee-area mental health professional, was on the ballot but had garnered fewer than 5,000 votes with just under 25% of the ballots counted.
Tiffany’s running mate will be David Varnam, who held a steady lead for much of the night in the Lieutenant Governor’s race. As of 9:30 PM, he had 54% of the vote over Will Martin.
The Democratic primary is expected to be tight, with Milwaukee County Executive David Crawley out to a slim lead over Madison-Area State Representative Francesca Hong. Crawley, who dropped out of the race only to return a few days later, is running with the backing of current Governor Tony Evers. Hong paints herself as a Democratic Socialist and has spent much of the last two weeks answering questions about her past social media posts, including one now-deleted post that called for the cancellation of Thanksgiving.
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