PEAK DISCOMBOBULATION: Rodriguez drops out, Crowley considers getting back in race for governor
Sara Rodriguez is ending her bid for governor after a campaign finance crisis derailed her campaign. And now, could David Crowley rejoin the race — potentially with the endorsement of Tony Evers?
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
Major developments are unfolding in the race for governor in Wisconsin, and the situation appears to be rapidly evolving.
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is suspending her campaign for governor after a campaign finance scandal, she said in a social media post this morning.
That alone would be major news in this campaign, but now, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is considering getting back into the race for governor, according to multiple reports, which we can confirm, per a source close to the Crowley campaign.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jessie Opoien has also reported that Gov. Tony Evers is “very seriously considering” backing Crowley if he were to re-join the race.
A Democratic source tells The Recombobulation Area that it is now “75/25 Crowley gets in with Evers endorsement.”
Missy Hughes, the former WEDC CEO who was one of the seven gubernatorial candidates in the race for governor, had dropped out of the race and endorsed Rodriguez, encouraged Crowley to “get back in the race” in a tweet this morning.
Crowley re-entering the race, potentially with the endorsement of Tony Evers, would be a dramatic shift in a campaign where much has changed over the last 10 days. On Wednesday, July 8, Crowley announced he was ending his campaign. As we first reported later that day, and as he announced the following morning, Crowley endorsed Rodriguez.
But as Urban Milwaukee reported earlier this week, Rodriguez had kept the financial trouble that has now ended her campaign from Crowley, as he was deciding to endorse her. I can confirm much of that reporting, and shared some of these details on a podcast earlier this week.
On the evening of Sunday, July 12, Rodriguez’s campaign issued a press release saying in a statement that it had fired their campaign manager “after discovering serious mismanagement and inaccuracies in campaign finance filings she prepared.” Rodriguez then held a press conference the following day, where, along with saying the campaign would continue to move forward, she offered a timeline of what she and her campaign had discovered.
Rodriguez said that on Tuesday, July 7, she saw that the advertisements from an $1 million buy that were supposed to begin had not. The following day, she said, her media team flagged that certain invoices had not been paid. Next, Rodriguez discovered that the total cash on hand for the campaign was “hundreds of thousands of dollars” lower than she thought.
That realization happened the same day that Crowley had decided to endorse her campaign.
In the days since this campaign finance crisis was revealed, Crowley supporters had been expressing betrayal and frustration over Rodriguez’s campaign not being forthright with their financial challenges.
Rodriguez had been considering staying in the race, but according to one source, “The depths of her finance issues were too much. She was about to turn it around, but folks that were going to help her walked away.”
Other candidates are also responding to the news of Rodriguez dropping out of the race.
Candidate Kelda Roys, a state senator from Madison, said in a press release, “I want to thank Lt. Gov. Rodriguez for her service to our state and for putting herself forward as a candidate for governor. Primaries make us stronger, and it takes courage and hard work to run for office. We are all on the same team and it’s time to unite the party so that we can defeat Tom Tiffany and deliver a Democratic trifecta. I wish Sara and her family well and I’m looking forward to campaigning alongside her this fall as we work to turn Wisconsin blue.”
Candidate Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, said in a press release, “I deeply respect Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez and the ideas and energy she brought to this race. This is no doubt disappointing for her and people who supported her campaign, and I am committed to joining her in the fight to protect the Wisconsin we love. While a lot has changed in the Democratic primary, one thing has not: we need a governor who can win and who will fight for Wisconsin to get things done. Tom Tiffany will make the challenges Wisconsin families face even worse. He has shown he cares more about loyalty to Donald Trump than about the people who are hurting in our state. I’m the candidate who will get big things done to lower costs, expand healthcare, make childcare affordable, improve schools and so much more - and I can and will win in November.”
Candidate Mandela Barnes, the former lieutenant governor and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, said in a tweet, “Throughout her campaign and her career, @SaraforWI has fought to make Wisconsin a better place for everyone to call home. I have immense respect for the work she’s done as a nurse and as our Lieutenant Governor, and I admire anyone who is willing to step up to help make Wisconsin a better place to live, work, and raise a family. For all those who believed in Sara’s resolve to make life better, there’s a place for you in my campaign. It’s time for all of us to come together to beat Tom Tiffany.”
Candidate Francesca Hong, a state representative from Madison, said in a tweet, “I want tot hank Sara Rodriguez for putting herself forward and for her years of dedicated service to Wisconsin. I know this was an extraordinarily difficult and disappointing situation, and I wish Sara, her family, her supporters and her campaign team well. Sara has contributed a great deal to our state, and I know she will continue working to make Wisconsin a better place. I also want to recognize the union members and working families who supported Sara’s campaign. Their commitment to fair wages, safe workplaces, strong public services and the freedom to organize is essential to Wisconsin’s future. Those values are also central to our campaign and to the work ahead.”
There could be more as this discombobulating situation develops.
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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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crowley re-entering the race and being instantly endorsed by evers feels deeply manipulative by the wisdems and is clearly not what the voters want
I know I sound like I have my tinfoil hat on too tight, but any talk of Crowley jumping back in strikes me as a coordinated effort to take Hong out.