Tom Tiffany, Republican Congressman and former business owner running to be Governor of Wisconsin

Tom Tiffany’s Wisconsin governor campaign focuses on tax cuts, rural priorities and energy costs. Tom Tiffany, a lifelong Wisconsinite, is running to be the next Governor of Wisconsin. He is a politician and businessman. Republican candidate Tom Tiffany is making rural Wisconsin, tax relief and energy affordability central to his bid for governor (Getty Images)The Republican is a member of the United States House of Representatives, and has represented Wisconsin's 7th congressional district since 2020.Tiffany's website says, “From serving as a Town of Little Rice supervisor to representing Wisconsin in Madison and Congress, Tom has fought for Wisconsin at every level of government. He knows how to make government work for the People, not the elite. He has balanced budgets, secured our borders, and never backed down when it came to putting Wisconsinites first.”Deep DiveTiffany grew up on a dairy farm and attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He and his wife, Chris, later spent about two decades running a small business in Wisconsin's Northwoods.Also Read | ‘War is a human catastrophe’: Gary Swing, Green Party candidate running for Arizona seat, wants to abolish nuclear weaponsPublic sources give little away about Tiffany's parents other than their family dairy-farm background and there is no authoritative single figure stating his current personal net worth. Tom Tiffany's stance on various issuesTiffany's economic program is based on cutting taxes and limiting government spending. He has proposed freezing property taxes and cutting income taxes by 10% for people earning $150,000 or less and returning Wisconsin's budget surplus to taxpayers.He also wants to reduce housing and childcare costs by cutting regulations and preventing large investors from buying single-family homes. His position on energy is also crucial given the increasing electricity demand from data centres. Tiffany now says Wisconsin should not become "America's Data land" and wants an end to taxpayer subsidies for data centres, local communities to have the final say and protections for farmland, water and utility ratepayers.Also Read | ‘Affordability, safety, and transparency’: Anna Eskamani, Democrat running for Mayor of Orlando, on her vision for the cityOn AI more broadly, his position is less about regulating the technology itself but controlling the infrastructure and economic implications around it. He has criticized policies that could increase electricity costs while supporting continued use of existing energy sources and new nuclear technologies.Trade has become a more difficult issue for him. Tiffany has supported Trump's tariffs, including those affecting Canada, while acknowledging that higher energy and consumer costs are a problem. In a recent PBS Wisconsin interview, he argued that tariffs are largely a federal matter, but that Wisconsin's governor can respond by cutting state taxes and reducing utility costs.The Iran war has similarly complicated his campaign. Tiffany has said it is time to "wrap up" the conflict, while acknowledging that he previously voted against measures that would have directed Trump to end the military engagement. He has argued that Middle Eastern instability has contributed to higher gas prices and that greater U.S. energy production is part of the answer.Tiffany is therefore offering Wisconsin a very different conservative proposition: lower taxes, more energy production, fewer regulations and greater rural influence. Ashka Singh is an undergraduate student of English Literature at Miranda House, University of Delhi, with an interest in the spaces between what is said and what is felt, and in the stories that acquire new meanings through different eyes. A recipient of national-level recognition from the Government of India, she has also been recognised twice for writing at the Amity Literary Meet. Her writing moves between the intimate and the social, often returning to questions of patriarchy, womanhood, relationships, and the invisible structures that shape life. Alongside her practice, she works with the editorial team of the Miranda House Students’ Union and leads content for AAVYA, the Animal Welfare Society of Miranda House. She finds herself most at home in poetry. This sensibility extends to her interest in cinema, psychology, music, and the layered aesthetics of Indian cultural traditions. She has a fondness for the unhurried beauty of ghazals, the cadence of shayari, and the lingering soul of a qawwali. Beyond the newsroom, she is likely to be found in the company of animals, particularly dogs - an affection she considers far less complicated than most human affairs. For Ashka, to write is to notice, to feel, and to remain truthful to both.Read More