Overview
- Media decision desks and the Associated Press projected Crowley the winner on Tuesday night and Republican Tom Tiffany conceded at about 9:45 p.m., with both parties treating the call as the race’s decisive outcome pending official certification.
- Crowley will be Wisconsin’s first Black governor and, at 40, the youngest to win the office in nearly a century, a milestone that national surrogates and Gov. Tony Evers highlighted during the campaign.
- His campaign overcame a turbulent primary this summer in which he briefly suspended his run, re-entered with Evers’s endorsement, and narrowly beat Francesca Hong to win the Democratic nomination.
- The general election was driven by sharply contrasting messages on affordability and taxes, heavy late outside spending, and turnout in Milwaukee and Dane counties that gave Crowley a margin large enough to withstand Tiffany’s rural support.
- With a transition to begin as the canvass proceeds, the new administration will face immediate choices on budgets, education and health policy and must negotiate with a split Wisconsin legislature over Crowley’s affordability-focused proposals.