Crowley Closes Governor Bid With Union Hall Rally In Milwaukee

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley at LIUNA Local 113 union hall for final campaign stop before polls open in 2026 midterm election. Photo taken Nov. 2, 2026 by Graham Kilmer.

On the eve of the election, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley finished a whistle-stop final day of campaigning for governor where it all began for him: Milwaukee.

With 26 hours until polls close on Election Day, Crowley stopped at the LIUNA Local 113 union hall, 6310 W. Appleton Ave., to give a final stump speech to a room of supporters. LIUNA was an early supporter of Crowley’s campaign and endorsed him ahead of the Democratic primary in August.

If Crowley is correct, the defining issues of the governor’s race will be affordability and the influence of powerful billionaires on American politics.

Crowley and Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who is running for lieutenant governor, drew connections between the rising cost of living, billionaires, President Donald Trump and Crowley’s opponent, Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany, whose campaign has been the beneficiary of massive amounts of spending by a small cadre of conservative billionaires.

“This election boils down to one question: who do you want your governor working for?” Crowley said. “They might have a trillionaire, a few billionaires, but I have all of you.”

In contrast with the picture of billionaires and outsized political influence, Crowley talked about the rising cost of living and his own family’s experience with it. He touched on the rising cost of education and health care, disinvestment in public infrastructure and his commitment to ensuring women have access to abortion. “We’re going to keep politicians like Tom Tiffany out of the doctor’s office,” he said.

Crowley, who was involved in negotiating the public funding deal to keep the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee, mentioned the recent Brewers victory parade in Milwaukee. He also pointed to his experience as county executive negotiating a deal with leaders of the Republican-controlled state Legislature that provided new funding for local governments and public services. “We did it by bringing people together,” he said.

He exhorted his supporters to continue to applying what he called the “Three T’s” on behalf of his campaign and Democrats up and down the ballot on election day: time, talent and, instead of treasure, now that it was election eve, he called for turnout. On the latter, he said, “That’s what we need more than anything.”

Elections in Wisconsin are regularly close, and recent polling by Marquette University Law School showed Crowley leading Tiffany by three percentage points among registered voters and seven points among likely voters. The same poll found voters associating Crowley with taking on health care, data centers and education, and Tiffany with cutting taxes.

One hundred and seventeen days before Crowley’s closing campaign speech at the union hall, he was announcing his withdrawal from the governor’s race, only to be pulled back in days later with an endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers. He barnstormed the state with the governor and won the nomination, and as he spoke Monday night, it appeared the political winds were at his back.

Republicans — in control of Congress, the White House and the state Legislature — were increasingly on the backfoot with messaging, facing voters’ exhaustion with inflation and rising gas prices and grocery bills, a deeply unpopular war in Iran and Trump, whose approval rating was regularly hitting the lowest points of his presidency.

Voters will decide Tuesday. Polls open at 7 a.m.

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