At the November 13 meeting of Northeast Wisconsin (N.E.W.) Patriots, gubernatorial candidate and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann summed up his reasons for running for Wisconsin’s governorship: “I’m sick and tired of losing. I can’t take it anymore.
“What are we doing wrong?” he asked. “Why do we keep losing? With the exception of Donald J. Trump and Ron Johnson, we do nothing but lose.”
For solutions to the “losing problem,” Schoemann is talking to people across the state: He has visited all 72 counties and is about halfway through visiting them all a second time. He says he hears from his audiences that the “top five issues all across the state are affordability, education, election integrity, roads, and home ownership.”
Over his 12 years as Washington County executive, Schoemann said, revenue has stayed flat—he’s not growing the government there. The county budget just passed unanimously with a property tax rate of $1.40 per $1,000 of equalized value; when he started as county executive, the rate was $2.88. The county government currently has 625 employees, down from 850 when he was first elected. Public safety, mental health, roads, and economic development have been his focus at the county level.
“If you ever doubt where I stand [on an issue],” Schoemann said, “look at what I’ve done.”
In response to audience questions, Schoemann outlined his four-point approach to election integrity:
1. Abolish the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC)
2. Move all statewide elections to November
3. Establish uniform voting rules
4. Scrub voter rolls
His Secure WI plan for election integrity, released November 13, unpacks the four approaches and his available online here: https://www.joshschoemann.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Schoemann-Election-Integrity.pdf.
When asked what he considered to be the key differences between himself and rival Tom Tiffany (who was unable to attend this meeting due to a schedule conflict), Schoemann pointed out that Tiffany was among the legislators responsible for creating WEC, in 2015, to replace the Government Accountability Board. “He had a chance to fix the problem,” by transferring election responsibility to the elected (and therefore accountable) Secretary of State, “but he chose to establish WEC instead.”
Schoemann also pointed out that Tiffany does not have the executive experience he himself has, and also that Tiffany is not as focused on property taxes and home ownership.
When asked about his relationship with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Schoemann said, “Over the 12 years I have been county executive, Robin and I have met maybe 12 times. We’ve had dinner once and drinks maybe once.
“When I was president of the Wisconsin County Executives & Administrators Association, I worked with Robin and other legislators to increase shared revenues from the state to counties,” Schoemann said.
He noted, “I thought the two recall election campaigns against him were stupid, and I donated $250 to Robin in the second recall campaign.”
Schoemann was asked his perspective on chemtrails and fluoride. He said he wasn’t familiar with the former but has plenty of experience with fluoridation of water, which he thinks is increasingly unnecessary given our access to dental care and fluoride toothpaste. He said he “loves, loves, loves the conversations RFK Jr. is forcing us to have.”
He was also asked about Wisconsin’s loss of agricultural lands to wind and solar energy, and also to data centers. With respect to data centers, he said he sees their potential to be great economic engines, “but no one is asking the tough questions about energy, eminent domain, etc.” The far bigger threat to agricultural land is wind and solar, he said: “There is nothing sustainable about it! When they’re done in 20 or 30 years, there’s nowhere to go with that junk.” He said “we should be figuring out what the next generation of nuclear power will be.”
Schoemann focuses on affordability, he said, because “young people graduate … and then they leave” because they can’t afford homes in Wisconsin. He warned everyone to be on the lookout for huge property tax increases because of Gov. Tony Evers’ “400-year veto.”) And, he said, senior citizens leave Wisconsin because of our income tax.
Want More Information?
Visit Josh Schoemann’s website.
Watch this video, recorded at the October meeting of Wolf River Area Patriots.
Attend the Monday, December 1 meeting of Fox Valley Initiative, at which Schoemann is scheduled to speak.
