Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, has won election as governor of Wisconsin, defeating Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in a closely watched battleground contest, according to a projection from the Fox News Decision Desk. Crowley becomes the first Black politician elected governor in Wisconsin’s history and will succeed retiring two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Crowley, who built his political base in Milwaukee County, spent much of the campaign tying Tiffany to President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, tariffs and the war in Iran. During the candidates’ single debate two weeks before the election, Crowley argued that Tiffany’s professed focus on affordability didn’t match his voting record.
“When Congressman Tom Tiffany says he’s focusing on affordability, let’s be very clear: He voted for the big, ugly bill that [helped] some of the highest earners here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said.
“We don’t need what is happening in Washington, D.C., coming into the state of Wisconsin. It is very clear that he is working for Donald Trump and the billionaires who are funding his campaign,” Crowley added.
Tiffany, a three-term congressman representing a large agriculture-heavy district in northern Wisconsin and a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, pushed back during the debate.
“Consistently focused on being against Donald Trump, I’m for Wisconsin — and rather than creating a bunch more programs that are going to end up taxing the people of Wisconsin more, I want to put more money in the taxpayers’ pockets,” Tiffany said.
Crowley’s path to the general election was itself a notable upset. In the August Democratic primary, he came from behind to narrowly defeat state Rep. Francesca Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Tiffany seized on that closeness throughout the fall campaign, repeatedly suggesting Crowley’s positions mirrored Hong’s.
“I think it’s really important to know that he said there’s very little difference between me and Francesca Hong,” Tiffany said during the debate. “That sounds like a socialist to me.”
Tiffany drew national attention in September after surviving an emergency water landing when the single-engine plane he was riding in lost power and went down in a lake.
Wisconsin remains one of the nation’s most competitive presidential battlegrounds. Trump carried the state narrowly in both 2016 and 2024, while Joe Biden won it by a thin margin on his way to the White House in 2020. Crowley’s victory in the governor’s race adds another data point to a state where statewide contests continue to be decided by razor-thin margins.
