The New York Times: In a Swing State Race, Tom Tiffany Is Known As Trump Ally
MADISON, Wis. — Reporting from The New York Times details MAGA Congressman Tom Tiffany’s close relationship with Trump and the clear public perception of their close relationship. The story outlines Congressman Tiffany’s inability to distance himself from Trump due to his long record of publicly supporting Trump’s extreme, cost-raising agenda, including the war-of-choice in Iran, the ‘Big Ugly Bill’ and overturning the 2020 election.
The New York Times: In a Swing State Race, He’s Known As Trump Ally. He’s Trying to Change That.
By: Robert Draper
- But Mr. Tiffany did not say that he was for Mr. Trump, though most hunters in the room, and across the state, likely knew that. After all, the president’s endorsement of Mr. Tiffany in January described the Wisconsin conservative in almost servile terms: “He has always been at my side.”
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Mr. Crowley has called Mr. Tiffany a “lap dog” for Mr. Trump. His campaign ads and surrogates have relentlessly hammered the theme that Mr. Tiffany has voted with the president 100 percent of the time while in Congress.
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Mr. Crowley’s campaign has argued that Mr. Tiffany is changing his tune now that he is running for governor in the purple state of Wisconsin. While representing the state’s most Trump-friendly congressional district, Mr. Tiffany voted five times against resolutions to end the war in Iran. He also voted for cutting taxes and environmental restrictions on data center construction.
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“He’s running a campaign that’s desperately trying to distract voters from his long career in the MAGA trenches,” said Ben Wikler, the former Democratic state party chairman.
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“He’s clearly tied to the president in the public eye,” said Charles Franklin, Marquette’s polling director.
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Mr. Tiffany’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
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He also nurtured an ambition for public office. Mr. Tiffany won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2010 and a seat in the State Senate in 2012. He sold his boat business in 2013, the same year he became the lead author of legislation that would streamline the permitting process for an iron mining company, Gogebic Taconite, to dig a massive open-pit mine at the headwaters of the Bad River in northern Wisconsin.
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His support of the measure infuriated local conservationists, who labeled him “Toxic Tom.” The company abandoned the mining effort in 2015 after intense opposition.
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Mr. Tiffany won his House seat in a special election in May 2020 and at the time, promised to be “the ally President Donald J. Trump needs to keep moving our country forward.” Mr. Trump subsequently endorsed Mr. Tiffany as a “big Tax Cutter” who would “help me DRAIN THE SWAMP!”
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(This past June, at a public gathering in Chippewa Falls with Mr. Tiffany present, the president disclosed an ulterior motive for his endorsement: “I liked his last name. You know why? Because I bought the air rights many years ago off Tiffany and I made a lot of money.” Mr. Trump was referring to his purchase in 1979 of the unused vertical square feet above the Tiffany & Company flagship jewelry store so he could build the 664-foot Trump Tower next door.)
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Mr. Tiffany returned the president’s favor in December 2020, when Mr. Trump was disputing the results of the presidential election he lost. Hours after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Tiffany voted against certifying the election results, based on his factually unsupported claim that “hundreds of thousands of illegal votes” had been cast and counted in the liberal strongholds of Milwaukee and Madison.
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When Mr. Trump returned to the political arena as the G.O.P. presidential nominee in 2024, he endorsed Mr. Tiffany again, calling him a “tremendous representative.” At the event in Chippewa Falls in June, Mr. Trump described Mr. Tiffany, who sat nearby, as “one of the best congressmen in our country.”
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Allies of Mr. Crowley maintain that Mr. Tiffany’s avoidance of the president is not fooling anyone. During Mr. Tiffany’s current term in Congress, he sought to codify Mr. Trump’s executive actions in a bill he introduced banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs from all federal agencies, although it ultimately died in committee.
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He voted for Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which he lauded for delivering “major wins for the American people” but which also, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, could put 63,000 residents in the state at risk of losing their access to Medicaid. Mr. Tiffany also encouraged Elon Musk, who oversaw the DOGE government-slashing program, to consider moving federal offices out of liberal Dane County for not fully cooperating with efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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