The WOW counties look to become home to a nominee for governor of Wisconsin in 2026.
Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington Counites (WOW) have seldom been in the spotlight for statewide elections. That’s surprising because they are the strongest sources of votes for Republicans running statewide.
Two of the three candidates showing an interest in the next gubernatorial race live and work here; a third potential candidate is from upstate; a fourth potential candidate who has not expressed interest publicly is also considering jumping into the contest for the election 22 months from now. The race will get into full swing in mid-2025.
Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who owns a safe U.S. House seat for northern Wisconsin, told the Journal Sentinel he will make a decision after the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court race that will decide the majority on the court.
Tiffany is known as an outspoken right-wing, pro-Trump Republican who is focused on passing President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Tiffany’s anti-conservation positions would not play well south of Hwy. 29.
The second office holder showing an interest in the state race is Josh Schoemann, a
staunch conservative who is Washington County’s executive. Washington County politicos have long believed that Schoemann has harbored an ambition to run for higher office.
Recall that Scott Walker, who was elected governor for two terms, got his wings after serving as Milwaukee County executive. Schoemann told the newspaper that he been encouraged “on a daily basis” to run for governor by “grass roots activists, business owners and community members from across the state.” He has been a frequent guest on Steve Scaffidi’s talk show on WTMJ.
The third potential Republican candidate with an interest for the governor’s job is Bill Berrien who has never held public office, but has a sterling resume. Berrien was an officer in the Navy SEALs, one of the fiercest military units in the world.
He holds two Ivy League degrees and owns Pindel Global Precision, Inc., a small manufacturing company in New Berlin in Waukesha County. Pindel does automated precision machining of metal parts and assemblies.
Berrien has been sounding out GOP leaders in the state about his candidacy for more than a year.
The three suburban Milwaukee counties have not received a lot of respect in Madison, despite delivering big Republican majorities in statewide elections. One example is the new $420 million engineering expansion at UW-Madison in Dane County with completion slated for 2028. It is one of the biggest public works projects in the history of the state.
In contrast, proposals to renovate and expand the engineering facility at UW-Milwaukee have gone begging. The Milwaukee metro area employs far more engineers than Dane County.
UW President Jay Rothman closed two-year UW campuses in Waukesha and Washington counties. Few Republicans stood up for keeping those two campuses open. Schoemann did create a task force to try to keep the West Bend campus operating in some form, but a pilot to merge it with the local technical college was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The campus sits vacant, as does the Waukesha campus.
Evers has signaled an interest in running for a third term, according to a source for the Journal Sentinel.
Only Republican Tommy Thompson has ever won a third term. He also won a fourth. Evers defeated Walker in his bid for a third term in 2018.
The biggest dilemma for the WOW Republicans mulling the governorship will be how closely they want to align with Trump during his first two years in office. The president-elect won purple Wisconsin by a thin margin last November with just under 50%.
Trump has passionate supporters, but he also has passionate opponents. His enemies will be working overtime to shift Congress to Democratic control in the 2026 mid-term elections. A political pattern of faith is that the party in the White House almost always loses seats in the mid-term balloting.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has painted one way forward for Republican candidates who want to stay in Trump’s good graces, but don’t want to be too close should his presidency go off the rails in 2025 and 2026. Trump’s first-term approval ratings from 2017 to 2021 were mostly in the 30th percentiles.
Ala Trump, Vos is creating a mini-DOGE at the state level. Trump’s advisory “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is headed by millionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Vos calls his initiative: Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency (GOAT). It is just being formed. So far, no business people have been named to that initiative. He has selected two junior legislators.
Schoemann had already picked up the Trump master theme to scale down the federal government. In a recent newsletter, Schoemann, who has downsized Washington County government and reduced property taxes, stated, “We were ‘DOGE’ before ‘DOGE’ was a thing!”
