Lt Governor Race Offers Stark Contrasts

Sarah Godlewski and David Varnam.

It’s only happened twice in the last 50 years, but Wisconsin lieutenant governors can become governor.

The Sept. 12 plunge of a plane carrying the Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, into Lake Wausau was a reminder of how an accident, death or resignation moves a lieutenant governor from a ground-floor Capitol office to the first-floor governor’s office. Tiffany swam to shore and suffered minor injuries.

In 1977, Lt. Gov. Martin Schreiber became governor when Democrat Patrick Lucey became ambassador to Mexico. In 2001, Lt. Gov. Scott McCallum became governor when Republican Tommy Thompson resigned to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Who are the candidates for lieutenant governor and running mates to gubernatorial candidates Tiffany and Democrat David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive?

The short answer is Republican David Varnam, a three-term mayor of Lancaster, and the far higher-profile Democrat Sarah Godlewski. She is the secretary of state, a former state treasurer and a 2002 candidate for U.S. Senate. Lancaster is a small city with a population of about 4,000 located in southwestern Wisconsin.

Varnam and Godlewski disagree on many things, including abortion.

“Wisconsin women’s fundamental freedoms are on the ballot,” Godlewski said at an Oct. 6 Milwaukee event with Crowley and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. “David Crowley and I will always defend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, free from political interference. Full stop,” she added. “The same billionaire network bankrolling Tom Tiffany has spent years funding the national assault on reproductive freedom.”

In Facebook posts in July, Varnam described himself as a “Christian conservative running for lieutenant governor” and a “pro-life, 2nd amendment conservative.”

Varnam, 47, became a statewide political player this year while Godlewski, 44, ran her first statewide campaign in 2018.

In his answers to a Janesville Gazette candidates’ questionnaire before the August primary for lieutenant governor, Varnam called himself a “stay-at-home dad” who came to Wisconsin 15 years ago so his wife, Jessica, a physician, could practice medicine in Lancaster. They have two daughters.

In that primary, Varnam defeated Will Martin, who had the endorsement of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Before the primary, Varnam noted in his Gazette answers that he — and not Martin — had “held an elected office” and added, “That is important in a position where it is possible I could become Wisconsin’s chief executive.”

On his campaign website, Varnam adds, “My two most important titles are husband and father. I am concerned about my two daughters’ future and the path Democrats are taking Wisconsin down.”

According to the biography on his website, Varnam was first elected mayor of Lancaster in April 2016 after serving nearly three years as a member of the Common Council. He touts his mayoral successes: standing 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.”

Other titles he has held: past president of Grant County Economic Development; U.S. congressional aide; and federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family, an evangelical Protestant organization founded by James Dobson.

Godlewski, an Eau Claire native and a popular speaker at Democratic rallies, got 1.3 million votes when she was elected state treasurer in 2018. She won the job after leading a campaign to keep it from being abolished.

The state treasurer has little power. Its most important role is being a member of the Commission on Public Lands. But the position raised Godlewski’s political profile, prompting her 2022 run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat of Republican Ron Johnson. Before the August primary, she joined two other Democrats — Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson — in ending her Senate campaign.

That gave the Democratic nomination to former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who lost to Johnson.

Godlewski got another Capitol job, however. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointed her secretary of state in March 2023, succeeding Doug La Follette, who resigned months after winning another four-year term.

The stay-at-home Republican dad or the Democrat running statewide for the third time won’t be elected governor on Nov. 3. But they will be as close as you can get to that job.

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