Gov. Tony Evers says he doesn’t want to play kingmaker.
Evers, who last week announced that he is not running for reelection next year, told reporters on Monday that he is not looking to endorse a Democratic candidate.
“I’ll never say never,” the governor said. “But I want to make sure who the rest of the candidates are before I even make that decision.”
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez said on UpFront on Sunday that Gov. Evers gave her a heads-up about his decision, though she didn’t say when he told her he was not going to run.
It was far enough in advance, however, for Rodriguez to produce a professional campaign announcement video. She released that video less than 24 hours after Gov. Evers made his announcement.
Rodriguez and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley are the only declared candidates yet. (RELATED: Foreign H-1B Visas Defended by Tech Titans, Criticized by Vance, Sanders)
Monday did see a report that Secretary of State Sara Godlewski may be looking to skip the governor’s race, and instead run for Lt. Gov.
There’s no word, however, from other potential candidates including Milwaukee mayor Cavalier Johnson and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.
While Evers said he’ll “never say never,” he also explained what it would take to get him to jump in, alongside a candidate. (RELATED: Viral App for Women Hacked Exposing Thousands of Unsuspecting Men)
“I tend to not get involved with the primaries in general, and so it’s probably where I hope to be again,” the governor explained. “But then, if it turns out there’s somebody that really needs support, and I want them to win, I may get involved.”
Evers remains a relatively popular governor in Wisconsin. The Marquette Law School Poll from June gave him a 48% approval rating. The same poll said 55% of Wisconsin voters didn’t want Evers to run for a third term. But the party breakdown showed that 87% of Democrats wanted to see the governor run again, while 93% of Republicans said he should not.
This article was originally published by The MacIver Institute.