Evers, Biden Are Closely Connected

Gov. Tony Evers. Photo by Emily Hamer / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Gov. Tony Evers choked up on July 22 when he praised President Joe Biden, who hours before had announced he would not run for a second term. “What he’s done for this state of Wisconsin, and frankly, our country, has been just short of amazing,” Evers said. “I am emotional. He is a good friend.”

Although Evers grew up with two older brothers, Evers seemed to speak of Biden like a third older brother. Biden will be 82 in November, the same month that Evers will be 73.

Why does Evers identify so closely with Biden? There are several reasons.

First, they share 50-plus years of public service. Biden was on the New Castle, Delaware, county council from 1970-72, before being elected in 1972 to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 36 years. He was elected vice president in 2008 and 2012.

In the mid-1970s, Evers started teaching science in a Baraboo public school. He then taught or administered public schools in Tomah, Oakfield, Verona and Oshkosh before being elected state superintendent of public instruction in 2009 and being re-elected in 2013 and 2017.

The high point of Evers public service was being elected governor in 2018. Two years later, Biden topped his career by being elected President. Evers then won a second term in 2022.

Both were successful by developing working-class public personas, often using phrases like “folks” and “come on, man.” In his first budget message to the Legislature in 2019, for example, Evers used his trademark term “folks” seven times and threw in a “by golly” and “sure as heck” for good measure.

Both Democrats were shaped by pain and loss. Before running for governor, Evers survived cancer of the esophagus, which has a five-year survival rate of only 20%. “Within those first two months of that diagnosis I thought I would be dead by now, frankly,” Evers told reporters before his 2019 inauguration.

Before he was even sworn in as a U.S. senator, Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in an accident that injured his two sons. And, in 2015, Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer at the age of 46, ending the chance of continuing the family’s political legacy.

Both had to govern while COVID-19 was sickening and killing millions of Americans, starting in the spring of 2020.

Biden’s plan to stimulate the economy with federal aid raised the national debt from $28.4 trillion in 2021 to $33.1 trillion in 2023. Evers doled out $4.4 billion in federal Covid-relief emergency aid to schools, local governments and businesses. But his order closing schools and businesses and his attempt to cancel the spring 2020 election were unpopular and challenged by Republican legislators.

Both fought with Republicans over the same issues for many years: Tax cuts, expanding health care, abortion and the threats from climate change.

Biden also lost battles over immigration and border-control policies, Evers is still fighting with Republicans over PFAs-contaminated water, deaths in overcrowded prisons, the growing role of private schools and the future of higher education.

Both scored major victories. Biden got Congress to pass the biggest infrastructure package in the nation’s history.

The national economic recovery from Covid led to a rebound in Wisconsin manufacturing and a low statewide jobless rate of 2.9%. Evers got Republicans to approve major increases in aid to schools and for special education, locked up the Brewers future in Milwaukee, expanded Internet access in rural areas and signed a fairer set of Senate and Assembly district lines into law.

Both are in the final stages of their careers. Biden decided on July 21 to “pass the torch” to the next generation of Democrats, Evers, his family and advisors must decide whether to seek re-election in 2026, after another potentially bruising fight with Republicans over a fourth state budget.

All they have in common showed up in this Evers tribute to Biden:

“President Biden is a leader who’s always chosen unity over division, people over politics, selflessness over selfishness, and decency and respect over cruelty and retribution … That’s as evident today as it has been throughout each day of his decades of public service. I’ve been proud and honored to support him, and I’m incredibly grateful for all the work we’ve been able to do together.”

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com