Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) won the Republican nomination to be Wisconsin‘s next governor on Tuesday, besting long-shot candidate Andy Manske in the GOP primary to advance to the general election.
Tiffany secured the primary win with 96.4% of the vote, while Manske trailed with 3.5% of the vote, according to the Associated Press as of Tuesday evening. Tiffany, endorsed by President Donald Trump, awaits the Democratic primary winner as he looks to take back the governor’s mansion from Democrats for the first time since 2019.
Tiffany has held his northwest Wisconsin seat in the U.S. House since 2020, announcing his exit from the chamber to run for the statewide office in September 2025 to replace retiring Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI). Several GOP candidates had dropped their bids for the seat either after Tiffany entered the race or after Trump endorsed him, leaving Tiffany to take on Manske, a 27-year-old medical service technician.
The congressman has run his gubernatorial campaign touting his years of experience in public office from the local level to Capitol Hill, arguing he has “fought for Wisconsin at every level of government.” Tiffany has campaigned largely on issues like affordability, public safety, and education, vowing to freeze property taxes, ban sanctuary cities across the state, and invest in K-12 education.
Manske had campaigned as a political outsider, urging reforms to the state’s healthcare and election systems, while also calling for a ban on data centers. But Tiffany had largely begun setting his sights on the general election ahead of the primary, taking on socialism and the rise of leftist candidates in the Democratic primary as socialist Francesca Hong emerged as the likely favorite on the other side of the ballot.
“Is the heartland going to be the firewall that stops this movement of socialism coming from, especially, the East Coast?” Tiffany said while campaigning with former Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week. “I think Wisconsin will be the place that stops socialism. Because I just know my friends and neighbors, including some who are Democrats, they are not crazy. They do not believe in some of these crazy policies: abolish prisons, abolish police, highest tax rates that you could possibly have.”
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Though Wisconsin is currently held by a Democratic governor, Republicans are hoping to take back the seat this November, riding the coattails of Trump flipping the state in 2024 and eyeing the possible opportunity to take on socialist Hong.
Cook Political Report last rated the seat as a toss-up.