Wisconsin Politics Group Chat: The results are in and David Crowley is the Democratic nominee
The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast featuresDr. Kristin Lyerly, Pat Kreitlow (The View from UpNorth) of UpNorthNews,Kate Duffyof Motherhood for Good, andDan Shaferof The Recombobulation Area. Find all of. . .
The Wisconsin Politics Group Chat podcast featuresDr. Kristin Lyerly, Pat Kreitlow (The View from UpNorth) of UpNorthNews,Kate Duffyof Motherhood for Good, andDan Shaferof The Recombobulation Area. Find all of these episodes on The Recombobulation Area’s podcast feed (Apple Podcasts, Spotify). The Aug. 11 partisan primary is now in our rear view mirror, David Crowley won by a less than 1% margin over Francesca Hong, and your friends at the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat are here to make sense of all of the results and much more. This week’s episode featured Pat Kreitlow of UpNorthNews, Kate Duffy of Motherhood for Good, and Dan Shafer of The Recombobulation Area. Dr. Kristin Lyerly was unable to join this week, but you can hear many of her thoughts on the results from ourextended, unhinged Election Night livestreamthat stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. ShareThis episode aired live onPat Kreitlow’s UpNorth YouTube Channelon Thursday, Aug. 13, at 9 a. m. For a beat-by-beat breakdown, check out our topics and timestamps below:00:00:00:Intro, housekeeping, old Up North News Newsletter & Question of the Week00:04:32:Kate Duffy joins from the Iowa State Fair00:05:43:Show Kickoff — “I’m Getting Too Old For This Shit”00:06:18:Recapping the Epic Election-Night Livestream and David Crowley’s remarkable victory00:07:00:Post-Primary & the Unity Breakfast-Turned-Brunch00:20:43:Crediting Tony Evers’ all-in Endorsement of Crowley00:23:13:John Johnson’s Milwaukee County vote map & the “Yard Sign” Theory00:26:08:Crowley’s Challenge Beyond Milwaukee — Northwestern Wisconsin00:27:09:Deep Dive: Act 12 & the Shared Revenue Overhaul, and messaging to counter Tiffany’sattacks00:31:39:Selling Crowley’s record without losing “Normies”00:32:21:Data Centers — Local Control vs. Governor’s Role00:33:27:Crowley’s Personal Story: Growing Up in Poverty00:35:03:Door-Knocking Tales — “Communist” accusations in rural communities00:37:10:Winning over Hong Supporters on data centers and “establishment” politics00:38:35:The Voucher Schools Debate00:43:10:Crowley the “consensus builder” vs. Evers’ legislative style00:44:30:Tom Tiffany’s Trump dodge — “The Orange Elephant in the Room” —and his weak healthcare “transparency” messaging00:47:53:7th District: Michael Alfonso, the Sean Duffy son-in-law00:51:123rd District: Van Orden vs. Rebecca Cooke II00:52:14:Will supporters of candidates who lost in the primary stay home in November?00:54:57:The Giannis Analogy — “No Failure, Only Steps to Success”00:56:43:Tammy Baldwin’s “Never Mistake Progress for Victory”00:58:46:Closing Roundup: Van Orden’s AI Slop, Election Denialism, No Break Ahead01:00:56:Kreitlow’s Music History Segment, sign-off and show plugsRevisit our unhinged, three-hour Election Night livestream here:In case you’ve missed a previous episode of the Wisconsin Politics Group Chat, you can find them all here. Dan Shafer is an independent journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at@DanRShafer. Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletterhereand follow us onFacebookandInstagramat @ therecombobulationarea. Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend. Give a gift subscriptionPart of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!Get 30% off a group subscriptionFollow Dan Shafer on Twitter at@DanRShafer, at BlueSky at@danshafer. bsky. social, and on Threads at@danshafer.