Representative Tom Tiffany, whose district covers a large swath of rural northern and central Wisconsin, was expected to easily win his party’s nomination for governor on Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Tiffany.
1. He has staked out far-right positions within his party. Mr. Tiffany is a member of the Freedom Caucus, a small but influential group of House members who have pushed the Republican agenda further to the right. He is known for his strong support for gun rights, lowering taxes and opposing taxpayer money for abortions. He was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a Juneteenth federal holiday, saying at the time that House Democrats had “used their majority to balkanize our country and fuel separatism by creating a race-based ‘Independence Day.’”
2. He is running for governor with the president’s backing. Mr. Tiffany received President Trump’s endorsement and enjoys wide name recognition in Wisconsin as a former member of the State Assembly and the State Senate. First elected in a special election in 2020, Mr. Tiffany easily won re-election in 2022 and 2024. No other major Republican challenged him in the primary for governor.
3. He is betting that socialism will be unpopular with voters. Since he could face a democratic socialist in the general election, he has warned against the dangers of socialism. Francesca Hong, a lawmaker and democratic socialist, was leading in the polls for the Democratic primary on Tuesday. As other challengers on the Democratic side dropped out and Ms. Hong ascended, Mr. Tiffany appealed to voters to make Wisconsin “the firewall that stops socialism from spreading across America” and to “reject big-government socialism.”
4. A general election could be competitive. A Marquette Law School poll last month suggested that a November matchup between leading Democrats and Mr. Tiffany could be narrow. The survey of registered voters showed Mr. Tiffany losing by several points to Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor who has since dropped out of the race. The poll showed Mr. Tiffany beating Ms. Hong by three percentage points.
5. Mr. Tiffany has highlighted his small-town roots in his campaign. He has made the case to voters that with his ties to agriculture and small business, he is well positioned to understand the problems facing Wisconsinites. (One TV ad shows him leading a cow through a barn and saying that the cost of living in Wisconsin is “udderly ridiculous.”) Mr. Tiffany grew up on a dairy farm, attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and later owned a river cruise business. He also worked as a dam tender for 29 years.
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