Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez drops out of the governor’s race

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a Democrat, said Friday that she was dropping out of the governor’s race, just days after her campaign discovered major inaccuracies related to its financial reporting. “As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear that there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction, not just for this campaign, but for the primary and for Wisconsin. This race is too important to let that happen,” Rodriguez said in a video posted to X. “I cannot, in good conscience, allow these questions to become a cloud over an election that Democrats need to win. Wisconsin deserves better than that,” Rodriguez added. The decision from Rodriguez, who had been among the front-runners in the Democratic primary, roils a wide-open race for governor in the perennial battleground state. On Sunday, Rodriguez’s campaign announced it had discovered “serious mismanagement and inaccuracies” in its campaign finance reports, leading to the firing of campaign manager Kara Spencer. Among the errors were duplicated contributions, which inflated how much money the campaign had raised and had on hand. The development prompted calls from several of her Democratic opponents to end her campaign, with many slamming it as “disqualifying.” Just as significantly, the discovery of the errors led Rodriguez to learn that her campaign had only $200,000 in cash on hand, she told reporters Monday. Rodriguez had been among the leading candidates in the Democratic primary to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, who is retiring after serving two terms. She’d placed first earlier this summer in an unscientific straw poll at the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s convention. And two high-profile candidates who’d dropped out of the primary in recent weeks — former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley — had endorsed her campaign. Other candidates who remain in the race include state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who has unexpectedly seen a surge of momentum in recent weeks, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who narrowly lost the 2022 Senate race in the state. Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, and state Sen. Kelda Roys are also competing for the Democratic nomination. Barnes wrote in a post on X that he had “immense respect” for Rodriguez and directly addressed her supporters, saying that “there’s a place for you in my campaign.” Brennan said on X that “this is no doubt disappointing for her and people who supported her campaign” and that he was “the candidate who will get big things done.” Reliable public polling in the race has been sparse. A Marquette University Law School survey from March showed Hong with 14% and Barnes with 11%, with no other candidates receiving more than 3%, and 65% saying they were undecided. The winner of the Aug. 11 primary is all but certain to face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general election.