Crowley Captures Wisconsin Governor's Race, Making History at 40

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is headed to the governor's mansion in Madison. NBC News projects Crowley defeated Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, keeping Wisconsin's top job in Democratic hands in one of the country's premier swing states. The win makes Crowley the first Black person elected governor of Wisconsin — and, at 40, the youngest to win the office there in nearly a century.

He did it while spending less. Tiffany, who represents a largely rural stretch of northern Wisconsin in Congress, went into the race with a huge fundraising edge, nearly all of it bankrolled by three billionaire megadonors. Crowley punched back with an affordability pitch aimed at household costs — childcare, healthcare and housing — largely through more state spending.

The Democrat also sold voters his own story. He grew up in one of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods, with a family that cycled through poverty and homelessness while both parents battled drug addiction, according to NBC News. Before winning the county executive's job in 2020, he served in the state Assembly and worked as a community organizer and political aide.

Republicans tried to dent that biography, hammering Crowley over property and sales tax hikes during his time running Milwaukee County and over past statements supporting undocumented immigrants. Tiffany also fought national gravity: polls before Election Day showed Wisconsin voters souring on President Donald Trump, and Crowley's ads painted his rival as a Trump loyalist. As the GOP's ad blitz landed, surveys showed Crowley's unfavorable numbers climbing.

The road here was anything but smooth. Crowley shelved his primary campaign in July while stuck in the low single digits, then relaunched 10 days later with a coveted endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers, who is wrapping up two terms. State Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, had led the primary polling, but moderate Democrats wary of her electability in a general election swung to Crowley late — delivering him the nomination by fewer than 4,000 votes.

That scramble left him little time to introduce himself statewide, and Tiffany cruised through his own primary with Trump's blessing. Crowley leaned on the state's Democratic heartland to close the gap: Milwaukee County, his home base, plus Dane County. He also got late help from former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.