Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany visited Prairie du Chien on Tuesday, Aug. 4, for a meet and greet at the Dousman House on St. Feriole Island. Representative Travis Tranel (R-Cuba City) and candidate for attorney general Eric Toney joined him for the event.

Tiffany, who currently serves Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, has called his visits "common-sense conversations," and he doubled down on that label while speaking in Prairie du Chien, saying the upcoming election is a fight between crazy and common sense.

"Wouldn't it be nice on some of these issues if we had some common sense in Madison? We're going to bring that in," he told a packed house.

Tiffany made several comments directed toward State Representative Francesca Hong (D-76th District) during his speech. Several media outlets have suggested Hong is the Democrat frontrunner to oppose him in the election. His rhetoric took aim at Hong for past comments about discontinuing Thanksgiving and abolishing the police.

"By the way, that's not defunding the police — that's abolishing the police. She believes there shouldn't be borders; there should be sanctuary cities here in Wisconsin where violent, illegal criminals can hide out," said Tiffany.

Hong has recently taken to the media to distance herself from past statements, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Tiffany and his party are "manufacturing outrage about jokes."

Healthcare became a contentious topic before Tiffany even arrived at the event due to a group of protestors gathered outside the Dousman House. Multiple organizations, including Grant County Indivisible and the Crawford County Democrat Party, helped organize the demonstration.

The protest focused on Tiffany's and Van Orden's support of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act and its effect on healthcare for Wisconsin residents. The organizations claim the Act is projected to take away healthcare from more than 250,000 state residents and drive up medical costs.

Tiffany addressed healthcare during his speech, including his support of reform for pharmacy benefits managers. "They've really taken advantage of their situation to punish small-town pharmacists... We need those pharmacists to serve our communities, and there are good reform pieces of legislation that we're hoping to get across the finish line."

Tiffany promised to audit "every corner" of each state agency for fraud and criticized Tony Evers, claiming the current governor declined to audit agencies within the state. 

He specifically called out fraud in welfare programs. "We are a generous people here; we want to help those down on their luck, but fraudsters shouldn't be stealing that money and preventing them being able to get the services we want to provide for them."

Fraud at the ballot box was another topic Tiffany spoke about. He said he supports absentee voting but not mail-in ballots for every voter. He also supported voter ID.

"I think there should be voter ID for everyone. There are a couple of small exceptions, and I understand those, but, otherwise, anyone that's [sic] able-bodied should have voter ID," he said.

Tiffany said he supported increasing money to "good" teachers and making classrooms safer before blasting the Department of Public Instruction for lowering the standards of education in Wisconsin.

"D-E-I is going to D-I-E," said Tiffany. "There's no place for discrimination in the state of Wisconsin... We're going to challenge DPI, which has become woke central in terms of education, and make sure that they're simply educating our kids. That's what we want them to do."

Members of Coalition Against MariBell 765 attended the meet and greet to hear Tiffany's stance on the transmission line planned to cross the northern part of Crawford County. 

Members of the coalition said their group is a nonpartisan, "one-issue" group focused on the Mari-Bell Transmission Line that Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance want to build in the northern part of Crawford County. If built, the MariBell Transmission Line would be the biggest in Wisconsin.

"We are the landowners immediately impacted by the MariBell proposal," said Tim Woodhouse, who is a member of the Coalition. "Everyone here has been contacted by Dairyland... We filed a lawsuit for an injunction against the proposal. That was our first step. Our second leg of this to get the candidates on record about this."

"I don't agree to build that until I get a really good chance to be able to review what's going on," said Tiffany.

He added that importing electricity into the state rather than generating it locally is creating issues like the transmission lines. "We used to be self-sufficient in Wisconsin, and it's a result of closing down base loads of power in the state."

Tiffany said the solution is to stop the reduction of local power sources and adopt new power-generating methods. "It is time to make nuclear part of the mix once again here in Wisconsin — we should be adopting that new technology."

The discussion on energy production included the development of wind and solar farms across the region. There have been large-scale wind farms proposed in Grant County.

"We're going to stop the conversion of our farmland to these industrial-scale wind, solar and data centers. It's time to protect our farmland in Wisconsin," said Tiffany.

Tiffany said he has fought for the end of subsidies that result in the conversion of farmland into wind and solar farms. He promised to put new people on the Public Service Commission who will work against farmland conversion to "intermittent sources of power."

"If you want to build wind and solar, build it over an impervious surface, like a parking lot or a rooftop," he said.

Tiffany also commented on the construction of data centers. "You put in appropriate regulation to make sure people want to do it — I think one of the key things is to make sure there's local input. But then also make sure people's utility rates don't go up."

Tiffany's visit is one of several notable political events to take place in Southwest Wisconsin in the past few months. In July, the Democrat candidates for governor joined a forum to talk to voters in the region. Wisconsin is often called a "battleground state," and the Southwest Region is one of its many fields of battle.

Dave Wesener, chair of the Crawford County Republican Party, said he advocated for Tiffany's visit because rural areas like Prairie du Chien are where the election is up for grabs in November. "I said, Look, people vote over here as well, and when you've lost an election by 20,000 votes, every vote counts — don't blow off Crawford County."