Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez was the first Democrat to enter the race for governor after Tony Evers announced he would not seek a third term.
On Aug. 25, she brought her campaign to Shawano to speak to the Shawano-Menominee Counties Democratic Party.
“This will be a 72-county campaign in the primary, because we do not have the luxury of not talking to everybody across the state of Wisconsin,” she said.
Wisconsin’s primary election will be Aug. 11, 2026, to narrow the field for governor and other offices. The final candidates will move onto the Nov. 3 general election.
So far, Rodriguez will be joined on the Democratic ballot by Ryan Strnadcq. Josh Schoemann and Bill Berrien are the two Republicans who have announced their candidacies.
In Shawano, Rodriguez touched on health care, education, immigration and farming. She also noted her support for legalized marijuana and voting rights.
Her support for legalized marijuana is tied to education revenue.
“What we have today is everybody voting to increase their property taxes to help the public schools, and it is an unsustainable process,” she said.
Increasing funds for public schools will be a priority. She said that when Colorado legalized marijuana, the revenue raised from its licensing was used for public school funding, a move she favors.
“I think there’s a way we can regulate it appropriately so it doesn’t get in the hands of kids and that we can actually generate some revenue,” Rodriguez said.
The candidate also favors automatic voter registration.
“One of the areas that I authored (when in the Assembly) was automatic voter registration when you get your driver’s license,” Rodriguez said. “You already have the documentation.”
Speaking of documentation, Rodriguez has a personal stake in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions taking place nationwide.
Rodriguez and her husband, Baltazar, have two children. Her husband is a first-generation immigrant from Mexico.
She told a family story from 2016, when her son was 8. Worried, he said to her, “Mom, what are we going to do if Trump wins? He’s going to make people like me and Daddy leave.”
“It broke my heart,” Rodriguez said. “I told myself I was never going to feel that way again. I had not done enough. I had let people like you in this room advocate for families like mine.”
So, she started volunteering with the Waukesha County Democratic Party and, in 2020, won election to the state assembly representing District 13. The district flipped from Republican to Democrat after Rob Hutton lost his bid for a fifth term.
Rodriguez has a nursing background. She has spent time as a registered nurse in an emergency department in Baltimore, worked for the CDC, worked for county and state public health departments in Colorado, served as vice president at Honeywell Life Care Solutions and Advocate Aurora Health, and even ran her own business.
When Mandela Barnes announced he would not seek reelection as lieutenant governor in 2022, she entered the race and won.
“It’s the honor of my life to be your lieutenant governor, but it was not on my bingo card to do that,” she said.
Rodriguez was asked how she planned to offset a reduction in federal money and address concerns related to rural health care needs.
“We have to focus on revenue,” she said. “Having a billion dollars a year for Medicaid expansion matching funds is going to be able to help us raise reimbursement rates for Medicaid across Wisconsin.”
In addition to revenue, she said the second part of her strategy is to push back against future federal cuts and the Wisconsin legislators who support it.
“If they are going to cut to the bone like they’ve been talking about without us pushing back, there is no way that the state of Wisconsin and philanthropy can backfill every federal dollar,” Rodriguez said.
Pushing broadband access in rural parts of the state will help with telehealth visits for preventive care.
Affordable health care options for farmers will also benefit that industry, she said. Someone suggested changing the rules to make it easier for family farms to make the switch to organic production methods.
Rodriguez admitted she didn’t have all the answers to help the farming community but was committed to having agricultural experts on her team to help.
The question of ICE raids on local farms and manufacturing sites was also brought up at the meeting.
“I imagine every state is going to have some level of ICE activity,” Rodriguez said, although she said the most recent focus is on large cities and large farms where ICE agents can easily round up workers.
“I’m worried about my own children, and I’m the lieutenant governor of the state of Wisconsin,” she said. “I’m worried about my kids having the last name of Rodriguez and somebody picking them up, and what they need to tell those immigration agents if somebody picks them up.”
Rodriguez also discussed the overall cost of living, cost of housing and cost of child care, when parents can find it.
She is in favor of restoring collective bargaining rights for unions.
“It’s going to raise wages for everybody,” she said.
Rodriguez said Democrats can still focus on the urban centers of Madison and Milwaukee but should not allow Republicans to have the rest of the state without a fight.
“I don’t think we have the luxury to do that,” she said. “I think that we have voters all across the state that are looking for somebody who’s going to present solutions to their problems.”
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
