Republican candidates for the August gubernatorial faced off at their first debate Monday evening, with the exception of Tim Michels who was absent for a campaign rally. The forum was hosted by radio show host Joe Giganti, and was formatted as a Q&A, with candidates only being allowed time for a rebuttal if they were mentioned by name.
Primary topics of the evening included all three candidates vowing to remove any district attorneys who refuse to prosecute violations of Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban. Additionally, the three candidates said that they opposed legalization of medical or recreational marijuana in Wisconsin, would sign legislation to bar COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and would prohibit gender reassignment surgery for minors. On the legitimacy of the 2020 election, Ramthun was the only candidate to directly answer whether he believed the election was stolen from President Trump, to which he said “categorically, without exception and without question [the election was stolen].”
Both Kleefisch and Nicholson attempted to evade a yes or no question while nodding to the potential of fraud, before being cut off for not answering the prompt correctly. On inflation and rising costs, Kleefisch said to address the impacts of rising costs she would sign into law a massive tax cut to put Wisconsin at a 3.4% flat income tax. Ramthun said he would shrink the size of government, and Nicholson said he would push to repeal the minimum markup on gasoline.
