Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez on Wisconsin Governor’s Race

0:00Sara Rodriguez:When you want your spring break to feel like... And your kid's pool day to feel like... And your hotel bed to feel like... Ooh, and room service to feel like... Because at Hilton, hospitality feels like...

0:19Ben Meiselas:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

0:21Sara Rodriguez:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton. For this day.

0:30Ben Meiselas:I'm R.J. Decker, a private investigator uncovering the sunshine state's darkest secrets. Tuesdays, it's the premiere of ABC's hottest new crime show. R.J. freaking Decker as I live and breathe. He's a private eye. It's not a standard murder. It's someone bigger. And a public mess.

0:48Sara Rodriguez:Trying to get someone back to prison today?

0:49Ben Meiselas:You go to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes. R.J. Decker, series premiere, Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu.

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1:26Sara Rodriguez:Spring is here, and there's a whole new way to chai at Starbucks that's made perfect for you. Choose your sweetness, dial it up, or keep things light. Add a touch of pistachio, a hint of strawberry, or vanilla, or make it a spring classic with lavender. Because this season, there's endless ways to chai at Starbucks. One sweet, melty bite of a Hershey's bar, and suddenly I'm right back sitting on the front porch with my grandmother on a slow summer afternoon. She doesn't say much, just breaks the bar in half and hands me a piece. I open my mouth to say whatever a nine-year-old wants to say. And she replies with a low, shh, listen.

2:09Sara Rodriguez:So we sat there, listening. That was the first time I learned that quiet can feel full. Hershey's, it's your happy place.

2:17Ben Meiselas:Talk about a rude awakening on President's Day. Donald Trump is getting some new polling data fresh out of places like Wisconsin, where his approval is at all time lows. You just take a look right here at Wisconsin. He has a net negative approval of 19.4 percent in a swing state like Wisconsin. Donald Trump's net negative is net negative 0.4%. The people in Wisconsin, like the rest of this country, is livid at Donald Trump's lies, his cover-up of a child sex trafficking ring, his provoking more wars across the world, and just the grift from he and his right-wing oligarchs stealing from the people, depriving people of homes, taking away people's future, literally taking away people's health care to give it over to his right-wing oligarch friends.

3:15Ben Meiselas:I'm not sure if you saw this GOP headquarters in Wisconsin. I mean, just to show you the people's rage is labeled pedophile protectors over the GOP offices right there. We've just learned that Cargill Meat Solutions is now laying off its entire staff. It's shutting down factories there. Wisconsin workers paying the price of Donald Trump's failed economic policies and erratic trade war. Yep, Cargill Meat Solutions, which has been around forever, announced the closure of a protein processing facility in Milwaukee. Wisconsin has lost over 2 ,000 manufacturing jobs as Trump has catapulted the United States into a manufacturing recession.

4:04Ben Meiselas:In addition, one of the things that Donald Trump's recent executive orders overturning these findings that global warming creates health problems. One of the main issues that are being caused is that we're seeing huge amounts of jobs being lost as well. Wisconsinites can see almost$19 billion in fuel costs,$5 billion in health harms through 2025 based on the repeal of the finding that greenhouse gases cause harm. 39 ,000 more asthma attacks, potentially up to 1 ,700 deaths. I mean, just in terms of the economic impact of what Trump's EPA, which is really anti-EPA, anti-protection, is doing. I mean, Trump's attack on universities like University of Wisconsin, it's crushing the ability of foreign students to transfer to 10 schools here in the United States.

5:11Ben Meiselas:We're seeing a drop, what, over the past year, about 25 % drop of new international students to our universities. And then just take a look at this letter right here that was sent by a bipartisan group right here of farmers and farm leaders. It was sent to the House Agriculture Committee, as well as the Senate Committee on agriculture. And, you know, you have former leaders from the U.S. agriculture leaders and former leaders from all the top U.S. agriculture commodity associations, biofuel organizations, farm leaders, ex-USDA, United States Department of Agriculture members. Look at this list of people.

5:53Ben Meiselas:It's all the top people spanning multiple administrations, Democrats, Republicans, independence. I mean, you have people like the National Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Barley Growers Association, American Soybean Association, National Milk Producers Federation. Who else is on this list? More National Corn Growers, U.S. Grains Council, Renewable Fuels Association, the Illinois pork producers, the farm bureaus, you know, in all these different farm states. Here's what they're saying is going down right here regarding the Trump regime. Again, this is not some partisan letter from the Dems or the liberals.

6:37Ben Meiselas:This is coming from these bipartisan groups and it's being sent to the United States House and the Senate Agriculture Committees. We are writing today to express our significant concerns about the state of America's farm economy and the harmful and compounding effect that the administration policies are having on our farmers and on the long-term competitiveness of U.S. agriculture. We are also writing to thank each of your efforts to advance a farm bill and farm labor legislation, your success in securing increase in agricultural conservation funding, and for your ongoing efforts to secure additional financial aid for farmers.

7:13Ben Meiselas:We write as a group of bipartisan former leaders of American Agriculture Commodity and Biofuels Associations, farm leaders, and former USDA officials. We have spent our entire careers working to build U.S. agriculture and are dismayed at the damage that is being done to American farmers. Farmer bankruptcies have doubled. Barely half of all farms will be profitable this year, and the U.S. is running a historic agriculture trade deficit. These metrics reflect a sharp reversal from record farm export surpluses and farm incomes experienced just a few years ago. There are a few tragedies greater than the loss of a family farm, representing not just the loss of a livelihood, but a loss of a way of life for rural families.

8:00Ben Meiselas:And again, it talks about all things under the Trump regime. They're causing increased cost of farm inputs, lost of market access as a result of Trump's trade war against the world, weakening international trade partnerships, cuts to foreign and domestic food aid. Just think about it. USAID used a lot of agricultural produce, a lot of produce from American farmers that were just burned and incinerated and the farmers were never paid. Failure to adequately support biofuels, disruption of farm labor with ice raids, for example, cuts to USDA staffing and agricultural research. And it says, look, this again, bipartisan folks.

8:40Ben Meiselas:And this is, of course, is crushing Wisconsin where you have Wisconsin farmers. And this is what the farmers are saying. The policies of this administration have caused tremendous harm to U.S. agriculture, but it is not too late to turn this around. We ask Congress, take the following actions to begin restoring America's farm economy to stable, dependable footing. Immediately exempt all farm inputs from tariffs. Repeal tariffs that are disrupting agricultural export markets. Pass trade promotion authority to enable the administration to pursue and secure meaningful, enforceable free trade agreements that can be passed by Congress and have the full force and effective law.

9:20Ben Meiselas:Direct the administration to prioritize the negotiation of binding trade agreements with countries that need our agricultural products that can help offset other market disruptions. Notice they use the word binding because Trump's making up fake deals that don't exist with random areas and they're not binding. So no one's actually doing the things that Trump claims they're doing. It's all a fugazi, a fake, a fraud. These bipartisan group of farmers go on to say, encourage the administration to expeditiously complete the review of the USMCA, the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, favorably resolve the pending dairy dispute settlement case with Canada and ensure the US MCAs extend for the next 16 years, pass legislation to enable nationwide E15 year-round ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel, pass a new farm bill, pass farm labor reform, including reform to the H-2A program, restore funding for land-grant agricultural research, critical USDA staffing, and domestic international food aid programs.

10:25Ben Meiselas:And again, what these farmers are saying is, don't play us like fools. Don't think we're idiots. Don't come into our towns and say, oh, I love the farmers. The farmers love me. The farmers love Trump. They're like, no, you're not helping the farmers. You are screwing the farmers and we're not stupid. Stop treating farmers like we're dumb. We know what you're doing and you're crushing states like Wisconsin. I want to bring in Sarah Rodriguez. She's the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. She's running for governor of Wisconsin against a guy by the name of Tom Tiffany. Tom Tiffany is an ultra MAGA Congress member who Donald Trump is putting in there in order to do more ice raids on Wisconsin, to attack the farmers of Wisconsin, to do golden ballrooms and to institute Donald Trump's radical extremist agenda.

11:16Ben Meiselas:I mean, Tom Tiffany is Mr. Tom Tiffany MAGA. Look at Donald Trump's endorsement. And he goes, we're doing great with the farmers, me and Tom Tiffany's what he says in his endorsement. No, you're not. No, there's a reason why y 'all are negative 19.4. All right. I want to bring in Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez, who is running for governor in the Democratic primary. Lieutenant Governor, it is great to see you. I mean, look, all states are under attack right now from this Trump regime and especially when it comes to health care costs. But I just know when I speak with people in Wisconsin, they tell me over and over again, it's at a crisis point where people are dying and feel that they're about to die.

12:02Ben Meiselas:And I don't know how I don't want to mince words about what this is. People are worried they're about to die because they can't access health care. Yeah.

12:09Sara Rodriguez:You know, I'm a nurse by background. I have spent my entire career in health care. I ran for office because I was so disappointed in the COVID response here in Wisconsin. And as lieutenant governor, I've gone to all 72 counties every year I've been lieutenant governor. And you're right. People are really scared right now about what's happening within health care. I've talked to small business owners who are basically not going to be re-upping their insurance on the exchange because they simply can't afford the premiums without the tax credit subsidies. And so they're just holding on. and crossing their fingers and hoping that they're going to be okay for a year or two and hope the next Congress comes in and fixes this.

12:51Sara Rodriguez:These things that Trump and the Republican like Tom Tiffany here in Wisconsin, that they've broken. And these costs are just going up exponentially for people.

13:02Ben Meiselas:And it's especially where Trump has destroyed the people who collect the data. But the thing that it's hard to know is because you always hear I've heard tons of stories like this. My neighbor was feeling sick and they said, you know what, I'm not going to go. I can't go to that. I can't afford going to the doctor. And so they didn't go. It developed into something. And then somebody, you know, in their 40s or 50s dies. And that's directly traceable to this. And when other countries are looking at what's happening here, how cruel and unusual it is that in the United States of America in 2026, frankly, any time frame, we let people we let people die instead of giving them access to health care in this country.

13:52Ben Meiselas:And then you have Trump and Dr. Oz and RFK Jr. doing pull ups and doing weird voice, whatever. And he's out there, you know, saying it's great. We've we've saved your health care. And, you know, as you're telling me, the people aren't buying that.

14:09Sara Rodriguez:No, they're not. They're not because they can see what their bills are. They can see they've got eyes. They've got ears. They're able to do math. They know that their health care bills are increasing. they know that their premiums have gone up exponentially. I mean, I was an emergency room nurse prior to the Affordable Care Act passing. And I still remember this man coming in, single dad, was newly diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He should have been in the hospital and he left. He signed out against medical advice, AMA, because he said he couldn't afford to miss work. And there was no way that he could afford a hospital stay because he didn't have the insurance to be able to pay for it.

14:51Sara Rodriguez:And that's where the Republicans like Trump, Tom Tiffany here in Wisconsin, they just want to drag us back to that era where people weren't able to afford their medications, were not able to afford a hospital stay. And really things that could have been solved earlier with a primary care visit with your doctor now become emergencies because they're not able to access the care that they need.

15:13Ben Meiselas:Right. And then on top of that, you have the nursing profession under attack as well. Nurses, very vocal after Trump won about RFK, giving lots of warnings. We featured stories of nurses here about what was going to happen. And it just seems like when Trump and this regime is thinking about like, while other people are thinking about, we'll talk about your platform going forward for Wisconsin, Like, what can I do to help people access health care, access education, afford homes, do things for the Trump regime that they sit around and they're just like, you know what we should do? Let's not call nursing a profession anymore.

15:55Ben Meiselas:And let's just make sure that how can we use the Department of Education to screw over nurses or, you know, what can we do to hurt the children? Should we take away their lunches? Let's take away their lunch. And you're like, what are you doing? Shouldn't the government be helping and not inflicting pain? But nurses, the profession of nurses is just entirely under attack by this regime.

16:18Sara Rodriguez:Yeah. I mean, I could not believe it when they came out that said nurses were not a profession. I mean, come on. Right. We are able to take care of so many different people across the health care system. Anybody who's accessed the health care system knows how much nurses care and how much work we do to make sure that people stay healthy. And so it was so rude and honestly, shockingly stupid for them to do this because we already have a nursing shortage. And then to come out and say we're not professionals and that we can't access either loans or dollars to be able to get an advanced education.

16:54Sara Rodriguez:You're just going to make the whole health care system worse.

16:58Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about this primary, though. It's a crowded field. Spoke with some of the other candidates. It's a candidate. It's a field rich with qualified fighters, including yourself. And so as you're out there making the pitch to voters, what's your agenda that you think sets you apart?

17:19Sara Rodriguez:So, number one, I think this is going to be a health care election. I think that health care is going to be central to this election. And it is such a complicated space. And to have somebody like myself who has worked within health care for decades, I think that's going to be a plus to be able to know which levers we can pull to try to lower costs. Secondly, I'm the only one in that primary field who actually won in a red district. I live in Waukesha County, which is not exactly a bastion of liberalism. And I was able to flip an assembly district from red to blue. We know Wisconsin is one on the margins.

17:53Sara Rodriguez:And so we are going to have to have somebody in November who can speak to the entire state and make sure we do not have a Republican governor. because if we get Tom Tiffany as our governor, all that chaos and crazy that's happening in Washington, D.C., that's just going to trickle right down to Wisconsin. And I know Wisconsinites don't want that. So we've got to be clear, you know, who we're going to be picking. They need to be able to win in November.

18:18Ben Meiselas:You know, what I appreciate, you know, something you did recently where you acknowledge that you misspoke on something. You just said, I misspoke. I really didn't, you know, and most politicians don't say that, you know, they either double down or they say something, you know, you know, different. You said, I didn't mean that. And, you know, you were, the question was framed about administrative warrants and, you know, your overall view of it. And you gave kind of a technical answer and people said, well, are you embracing this idea of administrative warrants? And I think you understood like my own view, and that doesn't mean others have to share my view, but my view on the show is that ICE and Border Patrol, frankly, need to be abolished on their current constitution.

19:01Ben Meiselas:This is not what ICE is supposed to do. This is not what Border Patrol is supposed to do. It needs to go. But I think what you were hearing, and I want you can address it, is that people feel this is an existential moment because it is. And people don't view this as politics as normal. They see a fascist regime out there that is invading states and doing it unconstitutionally. And so, you know, and I think as you're seeing people thinking about governors, it's which governor is going to fight back against the fascism. So can you address that and assure the people, you know, in Wisconsin that you understand the fascist threat and that you're going to fight back against it?

19:42Sara Rodriguez:Absolutely. I was actually the first primary candidate here in Wisconsin to issue a statement and a plan of how we could proactively defend ourselves against these lawless ICE agents and federal agents. So I called upon the legislature to be able to make sure that they were unmasked, that they wore clear identification, they wore body cameras, they should not be doing raids in places like churches, schools, healthcare systems, courtrooms, courthouses, any place that where people actually need to access services and that they should be able to use, they need a judicial warrant to do arrests. And so, yes, I misspoke, but I just want to be clear about that.

20:24Sara Rodriguez:And I did this actually before Alex Preddy was killed. I could see that we needed to have a proactive stance in Wisconsin before they came in. And so, I just want to be clear about that.