The Politics of Lt. Governor Position

Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Dave Reid.

Wisconsin governors don’t get to choose their lieutenant governors. Instead, the winner of the primary for lieutenant governor automatically becomes the running mate of that party’s candidate for governor in the November general election.

That means the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, will have as his running mate the winner of the Aug. 11 Republican primary for lieutenant governor between Will Martin and David Varnam.

On the Democratic side, Sarah Godlewski, secretary of state and former state treasurer, is unopposed and will become the running mate with the winner of the primary for governor.

There’s an old joke: “The lieutenant governor’s job is to wake up each day and check how the governor is feeling.”

That downplays the importance of the office, whose role is outlined in the Wisconsin Constitution: “Upon the governor’s death, resignation or removal from office, the lieutenant governor shall become governor for the balance of the unexpired term. If the governor is absent from this state, impeached, or from mental or physical disease, becomes incapable of performing the duties…the lieutenant governor shall serve as acting governor for the balance of the unexpired term or until the governor returns, the disability ceases or the impeachment is vacated.”

Interesting Capitol dynamics occur between governors and lieutenant governors. Fearing a potential rival, governors and their senior aides closely monitor what issues lieutenant governors can champion, their schedules and who they hire. And if they are not the governor’s preferred candidate, they often get sidelined.

Scott McCallum won the 1986 Republican primary for lieutenant governor with 49% of the vote, beating former Assembly member Patricia Goodrich, who had worked closely for years in the Assembly with Tommy Thompson, who won the first of his four terms as governor that year.

Thompson appointed Goodrich secretary of the state Department of Human Services.

McCallum, who became governor in 2001 when Thompson became secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, and Thompson were not close.

In the 2002 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, Barbara Lawton defeated former state Sen. Kevin Shibilski, the preferred candidate of Jim Doyle, who was elected governor that November. Doyle later named Shibilski secretary of tourism, although he resigned a few months later.

Doyle and Lawton were not close. Doyle let her head the Wisconsin Arts Board, but she was not part of major policy decisions during his eight years in office.

The 2010 Republican primary for lieutenant governor was won by Rebecca Kleefisch, whose 46% of the vote beat Rep. Brett Davis (26%) and Superior Mayor Dave Ross (15%). That November, Republican Scott Walker won the first of his two terms as governor.

Davis was backed for lieutenant governor by many people in Walker’s inner circle, who ridiculed Kleefisch in emails that later became public. But Walker and Kleefisch stayed in their political lanes and generally worked well together. Kleefisch later ran for governor in 2022.

In the 2018 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, Democrat Mandela Barnes beat Kurt Kober by a 2-to-1 margin. Barnes joined the ticket of Democrat Tony Evers, who then won the first of his two terms.

Because Barnes ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, there was no incumbent Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. That allowed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, then a first-term Assembly member, to enter the race; she beat Peng Her, who co-founded the Hmong Institute.

Barnes and Rodriguez are two of the six Democrats running for governor in the Aug. 11 primary.

On the Republican side, this is not the first time Martin and Varnam are running for lieutenant governor. They both lost in 2022 to then-Sen. Roger Roth, who won with 30% of the vote; Martin got 9% and Varnam 5%.

In May, Martin’s campaign said he had been endorsed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “I worked to support Govs. Thompson and Walker and would be honored to help Gov. Tom Tiffany enact his bold vision to move Wisconsin forward. Tom understands what working families, small businesses, farmers and communities across Wisconsin need to thrive. Together, we will fight to make government work for the people again, not the other way around.”

Varnam’s campaign website says he was elected Lancaster mayor in 2016. “Varnam stood up for taxpayers by vetoing a 40% stormwater fee increase, defeating a proposed wheel tax and keeping Lancaster the city with the lowest property taxes in Grant County.”

The exception to the rule that governors can’t pick their lieutenant governors happened in 2001, when McCallum became governor after Thompson’s resignation. McCallum appointed Sen. Margaret Farrow lieutenant governor, but the McCallum-Farrow ticket lost the 2002 election to Doyle and Lawton.

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