David Crowley elected governor of Wisconsin, defeating Tom Tiffany
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, holding the office for Democrats after narrowly defeating Republican Representative Tom Tiffany in a hard-fought contest shaped by tax, spending and immigration disputes.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has been projected as the winner of Wisconsin’s governor’s race, defeating Republican Representative Tom Tiffany and keeping Democratic control of the office in the swing state after a razor-thin contest. Crowley becomes the first Black person to hold the governorship and, at 40, the youngest elected governor in the state in nearly a century. He succeeds two-term Governor Tony Evers, who helped Crowley’s campaign after it was briefly suspended in July.
Crowley’s campaign pushed an affordability agenda that would lower household costs for childcare, health care and housing, relying heavily on increased state spending. He frequently highlighted his personal story, saying he grew up in a low-income part of Milwaukee and experienced family homelessness and parental drug addiction. Before becoming county executive in 2020, Crowley served in the state Assembly and worked as a community organizer and political aide.
Republican candidate Tiffany, who represents a largely rural district in northern Wisconsin, faced a national political environment that pre-election polling said was increasingly unfavorable to President Donald Trump. Tiffany’s campaign criticized Crowley for property and sales-tax increases enacted while he was county executive and for statements supporting undocumented immigrants. His fundraising advantage came largely from three billionaire donors.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Crowley received endorsements from several national Democratic figures, including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. The race was decided by a margin of fewer than 4,000 votes, with strong support for Crowley coming from Milwaukee County and Dane County, the two most populous and Democratic-leaning areas in the state.