Tony Evers was the Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction when he first ran for Governor and was elected. His first election was a triumph, because he succeeded the rightwing extremist Scott Walker, who hated unions, public schools, and public higher education, three of the jewels in Wisconsin’s crown. The celebrated “Wisconsin Idea” was centered on those policies, policies that advanced opportunity and equity.
Evers brought that rightwing extremism in the governor’s office to a halt, but he still had to deal with a Republican legislature, intent on frustrating everything he hoped to do.
Despite Republicans’ smear campaign, Evers was re-elected by a margin of 51-47, while his Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes lost to Republican Senator Ron Johnson, a reprehensible Trumper, by 1%.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One additional victory was avoiding a supermajority in one of the most, if not the most gerrymandered state. Although the state senate did reach 22 of 33 senators, the state assembly remained below a super majority. Evers can continue to veto and have his vetos stand.
great news
Gov. Evers was re-elected only because Trump endorsed a weak Republican candidate in the primary, a business executive who recited all of Trump’s nonsense. A much stronger Republican candidate was the former Lt. Governor under Scott Walker, a reliable conservative who very likely would have beaten Evers. Wisconsin Democrats – like Democrats everywhere – thank Trump for his great services in 2022 that elected many Democrats in a terrible political environment for them.
And from what I’ve read this morning, the Republican’s MAGA RINO, Traitor Trump, that keeps inadvertently (maybe) giving election wins to the Democrats, announced he is running for president in 2024.
My “maybe” is because the traitor might be doing this to get revenge on the Republican Party for not swearing total loyalty to him, and he’s also blaming them for his failure to pull off of a violent coup on January 6. After all, Pence is also a Republican and he refused to cooperate and then 10 elected Republicans in the Senate voted to impeach him for January 6.
As long as the traitor stays out of prison (and he learned from a master how to manipulate the justice system as long as possible), he’ll keep on being him and causing nothing but disruption and destruction for the Republican Party, and sadly, also the entire country as he continues his never ending scheming to pull off another violent coup and save his family’s criminal empire.
It’s a miracle that Evers won again given that Wisconsin voted again for that vile, putrid, rancid, lying liar, Ron Johnson. Wisconsinites keep voting this troglodyte/reactionary/neo-fascist back into office over and over. What the hell? Years ago, they voted for Ron J over the great Democrat and progressive Russ Feingold. Ron J has made it clear that he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare and yet they vote for him. I just don’t get it. Ron gets a THIRD term in the Senate! Good grief or is it horrible grief. But on the positive side, Evers gets a 2nd term as governor.
Ron Johnson is quite far Right, but his opponent Mandela Barnes is even further to the Left – the only reason that Barnes lost. Barnes had said many blatantly anti-police things over the years, and he advocated for a large reduction in the prison population – even for violent criminals – among other extreme statements. He said that he didn’t regard George Washington as a great person because he owned slaves, as if none of Washington’s major accomplishments had much value. Those types of beliefs go over well on MSNBC and on this blog, but they aren’t winners in states that have contested elections
I find it incredible that you equate Mandella Barnes positions with Ron Johnson & the current Republican party. The modern Republican Party has become anti-democratic, race-baiting, violence-inciting, shameless, and untethered to reality. When demonizing your political opposition, fear-mongering about marginalized groups and killing your opposition becomes acceptable, a fascist politics becomes solidified in the state.
Today’s GOP is putting in place rules & laws that permanently marginalize immigrants, LGBTQ, teachers/professors, public education, and non-believers in one religion. That is by definition a hallmark of fascism.
I recommend this podcast by historian Heather Cox Richardson for an historical analysis of current events & their relationship to fascism.
https://cafe.com/now-and-then/fascism-meanings-and-methods/
jcgrim,
You illustrate my point. You paint the entire Republican party as fascist but can’t see anyone on your side as extreme Left. I didn’t equate the position of the two candidates; I compared them. Those positions are both very far apart, and far off center on the American political spectrum. Republicans have been accused of being fascists since 1948, and it’s regrettable that most historians are now rank political partisans rather than scholars who have their own opinions but who also try to be objective. The author of the 1619 Project is the prime example of this phenomenon. I disdain Trump and many other Republicans, and I also keep a sense of proportion.
I don’t recall anyone calling Ike a fascist.
Bill Kennedy: Oh please, Ron J is so far right wing/libertarian/Randian/ fascist that it’s off the charts. Mandela Barnes is for abortion rights, protecting Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid and he is pro union. A HUGE DIFFERENCE FROM RON THE CON!!!!! Ordinary working people who voted for Johnson voted against their own best interests. But then maybe you are against abortion rights, unions and Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid. Sometimes I have the feeling that you are being, shall we say, a tad disingenuous.
The GOP has been calling the Democrats socialists, communists, Marxist-Leninists, far left radicals, Stalinists, totalitarians since at least FDR. Remember, Joe McCarthy was a GOPer and he smeared anyone he didn’t like as a commie, commie, commie. It still goes on today, labelling anything the Democrats propose as socialism or communism, you know, things like Social Security, the ACA or universal health care.
The Democrats would sweep a state like Florida if they based their campaign on the GOP promise to take away the guarantee of Social Security and Medicare and require them to be renewed every five years.
Joe Jersey,
You are one of several far Left hysterics on this blog who can’t recognize extremism on your side, and you throw multiple pejoratives around to describe people even when those pejoratives contradict each other. Libertarians and Randians have similar beliefs in very limited government functions and they are also strong civil libertarians. That’s the complete opposite of fascism which opposes civil liberties as enshrined in the Bill of Rights; fascism in practice has also meant a high degree of government regulation that coerces businesses to conform to what the government dictatorship mandates. You should learn what words actually mean before parroting what you hear on MSNBC and read on this blog.
For the record, I favor most of the New Deal (Social Security, FDIC, etc.), Medicare, and responsible unionism.
There is no one on the Democratic side who has literally tried to overthrow the Government by instigating an attack on the Capitol by a mob, then refusing to condemn it.
Bill,
You seem to think this is a far-left blog. It is not.
Ron Johnson is an Ayn Rand acolyte, he loves Atlas Shrugged and all of Rand’s putrid ideas. In other words, he’s all in for greed, selfishness, objectivism, social Darwinism and it’s every man, woman, child, pet dog for her/him/it self. Now Bill Kennedy is resorting to calling me names, “far Left hysterics.” That’s so typical of far right wingers to refer to liberals/progressives as hysterical but BK doth protest otherwise.