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November 2, 2022
By David Nordby
The Brillion News
SHERWOOD – Just days before one of the most tightly contested gubernatorial races in the United States reaches Election Day, challenger Tim Michels stopped in Sherwood at The Outpost Pub for a visit with supporters on Wednesday.
Michels spoke for about ten minutes then mingled with a crowd of nearly 200.
“I’m going to put more money in people’s pockets. We’re going to have safer neighborhoods and communities, and we’re going to have better schools and better education options for parents,” Michels told the crowd.
Michels, 60, is challenging Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers in the Nov. 8 election. Michels co-owns and co-manages Michels Corporation, a company in Brownsville that his father started in 1959.
“Something has to change. People are really frustrated out there. They know that crime is up. They know that inflation is up, and they know that their 401K values are down, and education test scores are down as well,” Michels said in a brief meeting with the press.
Polls between Michels and Evers remain close. Michels told the crowd that Wisconsin is a purple state and that “Republicans always under-poll in Wisconsin.”
When asked by the press if he is confident he’s going to win, Michels said this:
“We’re going to keep working hard right up through Election Day. We’ve been working hard since we won the primary. I’ve had over 300 stops in the last two-and-a-half months or whatever. We’re making five, six, seven, eight stops every day … It feels good. Why does it feel good? Look at the enthusiasm that we have here today,” Michels said.
Michels won the Republican primary this year beating out Rebecca Kleefisch, Timothy Famthun, Kevin Nicholson and Adam Fischer. He has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.
Michels, who has never held an elected position and told the crowd that “he is not a career politician,” ran for Wisconsin State Senate in 1998 and United States senate in 2004. Michels was asked by The Brillion News if he learned anything from those campaigns.
“Like everybody in this world, we get older, and we get wiser, and I’ve learned a lot in my 25 years leading the young men and women at Michels Corporation and my 12 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, being hand selected to be the commander of the Honor Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I want to take my real-life experience, take it to Madison, provide leadership there and get this state headed in the right direction by putting more money in people’s pockets through massive tax reform, by getting crime down, by backing the blue and getting rid of the weak DAs, and by having better educational opportunities for our sons and daughters,” Michels said.
Congressman Mike Gallagher spoke prior to Michels. Michels attended with his wife, Barbara, who he said makes every stop on the campaign trail with him.
“We are going to do bold leadership in Madison. I’m going to work as hard as the hard-working people of Wisconsin do. They deserve to have a leader that works hard and has been proven to be successful. My entire life, I’ve done great things and I’m going to be a great governor for Wisconsin who is always, always going to put the hard-hard working people and the hard-working families of Wisconsin first,” Michels said.
When asked by the newspaper if anything has surprised Michels on the campaign trail, he said this:
“We knew we had a good chance to get a good governor because people were frustrated with how poorly things have gone the last four years and Tony Evers has been weak from COVID to Kenosha, but to get these kinds of turnouts everywhere we’ve gone, we’re getting hundreds of people and they’re fired up. They are ready to vote, they’re excited to vote,” Michels said. “They are excited to get a new governor and take Wisconsin in the right direction.”
Chris Fiedler, who owns The Outpost Pub, told the newspaper he helped organize Michels’ visit through the Calumet County GOP group.
Governor Evers, 70, who has served as governor since 2019, has not made any public stops in Calumet County on the campaign trail.