Rodriguez Rep Says She's Still In The Race As Brennan Steps Up Criticism

Wisconsin Examiner

July 16, 2026

After disclosing a crisis in her campaign for governor this week, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez remains committed to staying in the contest for the Democratic nomination, a spokesperson for her campaign said Wednesday.

The Rodriguez campaign has lined up a public relations and crisis communications firm, Pod3Strategies, whose CEO, Christina Freundlich, has been fielding calls from reporters this week and spoke briefly with the Wisconsin Examiner Wednesday.

Rodriguez met with residents of the Madison YWCA on Tuesday, outlining her campaign’s policy positions and answering questions. The campaign was working to file its next round of campaign finance reports by the Wednesday midnight deadline, Freundlich said.

Meanwhile, Citizen Action of Wisconsin announced its endorsement of state Rep. Francesca Hong on Wednesday in the governor’s race. The grassroots advocacy organization cited Hong’s positions on data centers, healthcare and hospital costs, utility costs and a minimum wage increase.

“In our intensive grassroots endorsement process, Citizen Action leaders concluded that Francesca Hong is the best candidate to meet the moment by restoring a vibrant popular democracy that acts in the interest of average Wisconsinites, not the corporate monopolies that dominate state government,” said Robert Kraig, the organization’s executive director.

Wednesday was also the deadline for campaign finance reports for state offices. Reports covering fundraising and spending from January through June were due by 12 midnight.

A massive shortfall in the Rodriguez campaign, along with inaccuracies in the reports that the campaign filed in January, rocked the Democratic primary contest this week, days before the Wednesday deadline. Rodriguez fired her campaign manager, Kara Spencer, on Sunday and at a press conference on Monday, said she would continue her campaign while working to rectify the errors that had been committed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday that Spencer had a history of financial problems prior to being named to her campaign job.

Rodriguez said Monday that the campaign’s financial problems surfaced for her when a statewide ad did not start to run on TV a week ago Tuesday. The campaign had put out a press release announcing it was making a $1 million ad buy.

A review of the campaign’s last finance report filed in January showed numerous duplicate transactions. Rodriguez said Monday that her report this week would show about $200,000 in cash on hand and that she has raised nearly $1 million over the course of the campaign.

On Wednesday, another rival of Rodriguez for the Democratic nomination, former Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, held a news conference about his campaign finance report and flagged the document’s top line — $665,000 raised from Jan. 1 to June 30. Brennan said he’s raised $1.22 million since entering the race in December.

Brennan spoke outside the office building in downtown Madison that houses the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, which collects the finance reports.

Brennan described his campaign’s infrastructure, with a fundraising team and with reports compiled with the assistance of a compliance firm, a lawyer, the campaign manager and the campaign treasurer.

“It goes through all of those layers before it gets submitted here to the state of Wisconsin. That’s what responsible management is like in a campaign,” Brennan said. “That’s what we do in government.”

In an account published Wednesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that an unnamed Rodriguez campaign official was asked whether the campaign treasurer had signed off on the January finance report or had raised questions about the $1 million ad buy.

According to the newspaper, the official said the treasurer “is a figurehead and volunteer role and was not involved in day to day finance operations.”

Brennan mentioned that description and, drawing a contrast, introduced his own campaign treasurer, Janet Piraino. He described her as a trusted individual whom he had known for decades. But he also emphasized that it was up to the campaign to establish “the infrastructure around [its financial reports] to ensure that what they are doing is going to be accurate, is going to be right, is going to reflect the will of the donors and the will of the people of Wisconsin.”

He said that the first money raised in his campaign was spent to establish that infrastructure and ensure the professionals responsible for fundraising and reporting were paid.

Asked directly whether Rodriguez should drop out of the race, Brennan demurred.

“That’s for Sara to decide. That’s for her and her family and the people around her,” he said.

But he argued the missteps in the Rodriguez campaign would be used against her in the general election if she is nominated as the Democratic candidate, and would interfere with campaign messaging around issues including healthcare costs, public education and other topics.

“If you can’t demonstrate competence when it comes to running your campaign, that shouldn’t give people a lot of confidence in your ability to manage the hugely complex areas around state government,” Brennan said.

Another candidate for the Democratic nomination, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes declined Tuesday to say Rodriguez should quit the race.

Barnes spoke to reporters after a campaign event critiquing the role of money in politics. He was asked if the Rodriguez campaign’s financial errors were “disqualifying” and how voters should assess them in evaluating her candidacy.

“I think that is up to her campaign to figure out,” Barnes said. “It’s up to voters to decide if that campaign will ultimately be the strongest or not, if they’re able to communicate that or not. But that’s a decision that should be left up to them.”

Also running in the Democratic primary is state Sen. Kelda Roys, who held an event focused on healthcare in Milwaukee Wednesday.

GOP ad that focuses on Hong draws scrutiny

What’s going on with a round of TV ads about state Rep. Francesca Hong’s campaign for governor?

The New York Times reported Wednesday that a 30-second ad scheduled to start airing Thursday is suspected to be part of a stealth operation to boost Hong’s chances in the August 11 Democratic primary election.

The ad, sponsored by Right Direction Wisconsin, a PAC connected to the Republican Governors Association, flags Hong’s support for abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and her opposition to the deportation policies of the Trump administration. It calls Hong “too liberal for Wisconsin.”

“The RGA’s decision to attack Rep. Hong for protecting immigrant families during a week marked by three more ICE-related deaths is deeply disturbing,” Hong spokesperson Allison Geyer told The Times.

Even as the ad deploys an attack on Hong, the Times theorizes it aims to drive more Democrats to vote for Hong because it targets liberal markets — and suggests Republicans see the Madison Assembly member as a weaker candidate against U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor.

Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki echoed that assessment. “Tom Tiffany and his allies know they can’t defend their failed agenda thats jacking up costs for Wisconsin families,” Zepecki told the Wisconsin Examiner Wednesday. “So rather than even try they’re resorting to trying to pick an opponent they think they can beat. It’s pathetic and entirely predictable. Every Democratic campaign for governor — including Hong’s — should call this out for what it is: a sneaky, underhanded, blatant attempt to meddle in the democratic process.”

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes also attacked the ad Wednesday as GOP meddling in the Democratic primary.

While Barnes was circumspect in his comments this week about the campaign financing troubles that came to light in the gubernatorial campaign of Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a statement his campaign issued Wednesday sharply criticized both Rodriguez and Hong.

Citing the Times, Barnes’ campaign criticized the RGA for “spending $2.2 million to boost Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong” and called Hong “the only candidate losing the general election in every poll of the Wisconsin governor’s race.”

The ad, the campaign asserted, comes as the Rodriguez financial crisis has created “an ‘extinction level event’ and ‘mortal blow’” to her campaign and left the field to Hong and Barnes.

(The statement ignores Sen. Kelda Roys and former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, both of whom have placed behind Barnes, Hong and Rodriguez in polling so far.)

“Right as the GOP gets confirmation that this is a two person race, they decided to meddle to pick the candidate Tom Tiffany wants to face in November,” the statement quotes Barnes campaign manager Darby O’Connor as saying. “This race should be decided by Wisconsin voters, not billionaire MAGA donors. There is one candidate who can win this primary and the general election, and it is Mandela Barnes.”

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