August 11th is primary day in Wisconsin, and of an original field of seven candidates in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, four remain. One of those is Joel Brennan. He served as the current governor’s, Tony Evers’, Secretary of the Department of Administration, which in Wisconsin is the top cabinet level position. Part of his task was to begin to undo much of the work that far right Governor Scott Walker had done to Wisconsin during his own two terms. This resulted in growing Wisconsin’s rainy day fund to $1.7 billion as well as creating an almost $4 billion budget surplus. Joel previously served as president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and CEO of Discovery World.

John and Jim talked with him about his campaign, including what LGBTQ Wisconsites can expect from him if elected Governor.

INTERVIEW WITH JOEL BRENNAN

John Parker:
So I’d like to start with the fact that if you were to be elected governor, you would become the top defender of Wisconsin against the Trump administration. And we’ve heard a lot on this show about how voters are looking for candidates who are willing to fight the Trump administration and go to the mat for us. So if you were to become governor, what is your assessment of Trump’s attacks on Wisconsin and how would you respond?

Joel Brennan:
Well, I mean, you can pick almost any lane of where the Trump administration has attacked Wisconsin on healthcare, on civil rights, on education, on housing, on agriculture. There’s a whole bunch. But let me just, because it is so often in the news and has been in Minnesota and in Wisconsin, how we would deal with ICE. And that’s an issue that I think no matter where you are, you care about everybody’s civil, individual and human rights.

And so here’s one area where I have about six months ago, maybe it was six months ago, I suggested that Governor Evers take a step farther than he had done before. Model what they did in Illinois to establish an accountability commission when it comes to ICE, which means that we would establish a website where someone could safely upload photographs and video and ensure that there is a state sanctioned place when things are happening in communities where they can go and load that up and then have a commission of seven or nine people, whether they be retired law enforcement, retired state Supreme Court justices, people who had worked in the nonprofit sector around immigration, people who are above reproach.

And with that, you’re able to gather evidence because I don’t care whether somebody’s wearing a federal uniform or not, if you break a state law, you should be held to account. And this is one way for us to make sure that we are getting ironclad foolproof ways when it comes time to hold people to account. We have all of that evidence. And so those are the types of things. And if I am governor, I’ll do that on day one.

As Tony Evers has been governor, as this stuff has gone on, I suggested and encouraged that he do this months ago. These are the things that I think you have to ensure you are setting up. We can’t just do things as a result of what happens. Yes, we need to make sure that we have all the protections in place we should pass. If we have a legislature that’s agreeable, pass the 287G restrictions where no local law enforcement is going to be an extension of ICE, their jobs are hard enough at the local level, we should be doing all those things, but there are ways that we can go beyond just what others have done and be a leader in this.

And I think when it comes to standing up to Donald Trump, it can’t be that we’ve seen efforts to placate him and what that has gotten from governors and from states. It has to be showing from a position of strength, but also from a position of just basic accountability and human decency.

That’s who we should be. That to me is the hallmark of who we should be as government. And we don’t get any of it from the federal level, but we need to make sure we are standing strong.

John Parker:
We’ve talked to a number of officials on the show about the November election in terms of protecting the election itself. We spoke with Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon who said he’s actually planning, directing his office to plan for all potential outcomes that the Trump administration could take in terms of stopping, overturning, and otherwise cheating the election. We’re going to have an election one way or another in November. If you’re elected governor though, how would you protect voting rights and democracy in Wisconsin against an administration, a federal administration who would like to roll back as much of it as possible?

Joel Brennan:
Not even roll back. They simply don’t want to accept results where they don’t win. Here in Wisconsin, they have re-litigated an election result from six years ago that they lost. They lost on election day. They lost in the courts that was demonstrated in a recount. There has only been umpteen times where it was demonstrated Wisconsin went for Joe Biden in 2020. And so there are all kinds of ways in which that is under threat. And here’s, again, what I would tell you is this is one of the most important issues for Democrats and for people around the state of Wisconsin. I want to be governor of a state that’s got six million people, whether they vote for me or not, but I want everybody’s right protected. And so things like protecting vote by mail. I went to vote early with my family yesterday, making sure that we do that.

We protect the people who are working behind the desk. This is something that is democracy in action.

If necessary, like we did in 2020 in Wisconsin, I would call up the National Guard in Wisconsin. That’s about 10,000 men and women and they work and they live in communities around the state.

And I’m not talking about having them come out in uniform, but come out in their civilian attire. They are our friends and neighbors. If we need more people to ensure that we have free and fair elections, they’re well-trained. They’re able to do this on short notice. This is who we should be in order to protect democracy.

If necessary, I’d do what the state of Connecticut has done and other states have looked at. Make sure that we put a buffer of 250 or 500 feet around every polling place, meaning that if a uniformed federal officer comes within that without a warrant, that they get sent away.

This is what we got to do to protect democracy in Wisconsin and nationally in 2026. I am embarrassed that that’s the state of things in our country and that this is what we have at the federal level. But running elections, states do that. And Wisconsin has done it very well for as long as we have been around, and I would anticipate we continue to do that. It was great for me when I went yesterday to vote here in Wisconsin. I went to my city hall here in Milwaukee and I met a guy who I played softball against 30 years ago who’s still working and doing this. And this is what democracy looks like. You have friends, you have neighbors, you have people who have time on their hands, and their job is not to tell you how to vote, but to make sure that it is as easy as possible.
And I’m proud of that.

This is what democracy should look like. And it’s in a shambles in so many ways because of what Donald Trump has brought, and we can’t stand for that. But it’s not that we need to. The best way that we demonstrate that that’s not the democracy that we are for is to give people every tool and every bit of access. In Wisconsin, we’ve had this crazy notion that there are ballot dumps at the end of every election. You know why? Because you can’t touch all the ballots that come in until election day. If you just added one day, and there’s a bipartisan agreement on this, you added one day where they could process ballots the day before, take them out, do all of this stuff, and then put them through on election day This notion of ballot dumps would go away.

But I think because it’s a Republican talking point and they can use this to drum up the craziness and the ludicrous responses that they have, it doesn’t get done. We have to govern in a way that we’re responsible, we’re pragmatic, and we’re real. And these are things that they simply haven’t done because they like the showpiece and like to be able to claim that there’s some sort of a nefarious stuff going on here.

John Parker:
Healthcare is another issue that comes up a lot with our listeners and viewers. You call your health proposal Healthy Wisconsin Promise. Can you lay it out for our listeners and what it would achieve?

Joel Brennan:
Sure. I mean, there are four basic principles to it, and I have had experiences throughout the campaign that elucidate all of these things. Let me start with, I’m the 10th of 11 kids. We didn’t go into much bio. And if we did, I’d probably spend the rest of my time just talking about my family. But 10th of 11 kids, I have two sisters who are doctors. One’s an obstetrician, an OBGYN in Northern Illinois. She took a couple of days off a couple months ago and drove me around the state. She told me that over 30 years she has delivered about 12,000 babies. And I can say this to you in Minnesota and the same as I can say it in Wisconsin. You’ll have to excuse the fact that many of them are Barren Cub fans. But beyond that, she’s a very good person and there’s other redeeming values that she has.

But she and I were talking about the fact that in Wisconsin, there are 27 counties right now that don’t have a practicing OB/GYN. 27 out of 72 counties.

And that has gotten worse over the last several years since the Dobbs decision. This is what we are doing for access in Wisconsin. If you’re a woman who’s doing your prenatal visits, going to deliver, having your post-delivery care, well baby visits, even basic women’s health, all of those things you’re going hours for. And so access is a challenge and it’s more of a challenge in the rural parts of the state than anywhere else. So the planks of my plan are better access, especially in the rural parts of our state, bringing down costs, especially for individuals, but also for businesses who are trying to do it. We can talk about it, but I’d like to create a public option here based on the state employee health plan using that.

So it’s cost, it’s access, it’s the pipeline of workforce that we need. We’re going to need another 3,000 nurses a year over the next decade in Wisconsin. And then the last aspect is just making mental health part of basic healthcare in Wisconsin. We have a very fractured system where if you’re in Douglas County, you get one set of standards in Ashland or Bayfield, it’s different. And we have a situation where law enforcement on a way too frequent basis is being asked to deliver mental health support where they’re not equipped. And we have to be in a situation where we are doing things in a much more cohesive way, and we can control more of that at the state level than we have been able to do.

And this is in the last 16 years since Scott Walker was governor here, since he took over in 2010, we’ve created systems that make it harder for people, that make it more disjointed.

Here’s another basic tenant of what I said around healthcare. There’s about five or 7% of kids in Wisconsin who have no health insurance. And we should be trying to get as many people as possible insured. But if we started by taking every kid up to 300% of the federal poverty level and ensuring that they get coverage, that seems to me a Wisconsin value that everybody could be for, and we could ensure that we’re starting there. Those are some of the basics of going back to the Wisconsin that I knew in my youth, the Wisconsin I want us to be, and making sure that we can do the things that are practical and that we’re getting somewhere. That’s it.

And there are other things within the healthcare system bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. Again, I have never found over the course of about nine months on the campaign trail, I haven’t found anybody who’s a big defender of pharmacy benefit managers who are in between the drug manufacturers and the pharmacists, and they are driving up prices for consumers.

They’re closing pharmacies. There’s a pharmacy family that ran a pharmacy in Oneida County and they closed after almost a hundred years in business, not because they were any less busy than ever, but because with every prescription that they fill, it was costing them money. This is a system that is broken and we have some leverage at the state level to do some things about that. Those are, I think, basic Wisconsin things. They work in other Midwestern states. And again, to be honest with you, there was a time when Wisconsin was a big leader in lots of things, in innovation. And we have been a leader on any number of fronts. For the last 15 years, we have lost ground to Minnesota, to Illinois, to Michigan. There are ways in which we should be a leader and we can get back to doing that.

John Parker:
I will ask you about a follow-up to that very briefly. Non-discrimination protections in healthcare as well as access to gender-affirming care are top of mind for LGBTQ voters. Would healthy Wisconsin promise address those issues?

Joel Brennan:
It would, and it needs to. And again, where I talk about in Wisconsin, I’ve been proud that Governor Evers has, I served on his cabinet. He has stood in the way of legislation that would be harmful to all of Wisconsin, especially our LGBTQ+ residents here. And I’m proud that I would be able to do the same. But I also think we can be doing some things on the offensive that we haven’t done in Wisconsin for a generation.

John Parker:
So I want to talk about yesterday at Farm Fest here in Minnesota, MAGA, Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Fishbach said that Trump’s tariffs were Biden’s fault. She was booed loudly. Most people don’t realize that yes, there are LGBTQ farmers. There are queer folks who make a living in agriculture. We’ve reported on soybeans extensively last summer when that debacle was happening. But more broadly speaking to Wisconsin’s farming communities, can you talk to the impact of Trump’s tariffs, what they’re having and how you would address it if you’re elected as governor?

Joel Brennan:
Well, I mean, the impact is felt no matter where you go, whether it’s feed or seed or transportation or fertilizer. Every cost in agriculture has gone up over the last six months. And in Wisconsin, the dairy farmers are still getting pretty much the same that they got for milk 30 years ago. And there are all kinds of challenges that we have passing farms from one generation to the next. These are stories that have been repeated for me everywhere that I have gone around the state.

One specific thing, a difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin. I was in Superior not that long ago. I went to a farmer’s market. There was a young couple who were just starting off as organic farmers, and they were in the community of Bennett, which is in Douglas County. And they said that their neighbors just a few miles west in Minnesota, they could qualify for 10 or 25 or $50,000 grants from the state in order to start their organic farming efforts.

This is not millions and millions of dollars. And it’s not anybody lining their pockets because if you know anybody in agriculture, they’re not in it for the money. It’s never been easy and it’s only gotten materially harder. And there are things that are happening in Minnesota that we aren’t doing in Wisconsin. And it’s all about entrepreneurs and it’s about feeding people.

So on a small level, one of the things that we can do is restore through DATCAP and through our Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, some of those ways that we can just start to help young farmers or organic farmers get their start. The other thing, I have been on, and I’ll be on one more tomorrow in and around in Rock County, near Janesville. I’ll be on another farm. But I’ll tell you what works everywhere.

And people generally don’t trust government maybe for good reason, but farmers don’t trust government for good reason.

And what farmers do and what people in agriculture want, they want farmer-led conservation efforts. They want to see innovation that’s being demonstrated on farms. And I’ve been in places where they’re doing this. Yes, there’s a connection oftentimes to the UW system or to what’s going on. There are innovations that are happening.

But more and more, those people in the agricultural community who want to do right by it, want to make a living, but also want to do right by the environment, they are getting stonewalled. And the best way for us to do that is to take the lead of the responsible people in agriculture, the responsible farmers who are doing it. So there are ways for us to make sure that we are letting the agricultural community lead us in some of those ways too. But it does start with, there are a couple of things.

When I was the head of the Department of Administration, I got to see firsthand how Scott Walker and the right-wing legislature had hollowed out any number of places inside state government.

Department of Natural Resources was probably worse. Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection, not a heck of a lot better. And so if we’re going to do the kind of things where the state government can be a partner in these things, you also need to have at least to return to some of what we had in the past in terms of the infrastructure to be able to support that. I was never prouder during the time that I was working in COVID when there were family farms and farmers who were absolutely going to go under without state support. And I have heard from some of them as I’ve gone around the state, they don’t want to hand out, but they also know when government is pitted against them and when we’re doing things that are absolutely detrimental to them.

John Parker:
Briefly, Joel, what can LGBTQ Wisconsinites expect from you if you are going to be elected governor?

Joel Brennan:
Respect. Somebody who’s demonstrated over the course of my life and not only my public life, but my career, that I’m somebody who is accessible, who when necessary, will stand up to extremism, who respects courage and who wants to have both a cabinet and a government that is reflective of Wisconsin. I think that’s what everybody in Wisconsin should expect of me. But I also, I know that the harm from Donald Trump is universal, but it’s also not meted out equally. There are people who walk around feeling like they have a target on their back, and it isn’t people that look like me. And I know we need allies who are across the board to be able to stand up courageously to those things, and that’s who people can expect of me.

For more information about Joel Brennan, you can visit brennanforwi.com. Election day is on August 11th.