Berrien tells ‘UpFront’ he has ‘great chance’ of winning Trump endorsement

Bill Berrien, the Wisconsin businessman and Republican candidate for governor, says he has “a great chance” of receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite his previous criticism of Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have the vision for making Wisconsin literally ground zero for the reindustrialization that he’s trying to lead in the country,” Berrien, CEO of manufacturing and machining firm Pindel Global Precision, said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,“ which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “I mean, nowhere else in the country is it more likely. We’ve got a 125-year-old manufacturing ecosystem. We have a highly trained, highly trainable workforce. You have the tariffs that are incentivizing businesses to consider investing in the country. And now you have the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that, it’s like a Black Friday sale, a factory expansion, no coupons required, between all the business incentives in manufacturing.”

Berrien said he’s had conversations with “various members of [Trump’s] orbits” adding his campaign is trying to “keep them up to date, updated on where we’re going.”

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In a 2020 interview with Fox Business, Berrien said he hadn’t decided whether to back Trump, criticizing what he said was Trump’s “anti-science approach” to the pandemic.

“To sort of set the record straight, since 2016, my wife and I have supported Donald Trump in every election — 2016, 2020, 2024,” Berrien said. “Voted for him and financially supported.”

Berrien’s political action committee, or PAC, raised $1.2 million before officially launching his bill. He said his campaign was projected to raise “just shy of a million” in the one week since his launch.

“It’s relationships that I’ve sort of historically had going back,” Berrien said of his fundraising support. “It’s friends and donors in the state. I’ve been active on, you know, Republican donations and fundraising going back since we first came here 23 years ago.”

Berrien’s campaign launch quickly targeted Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who has yet to announce whether he will seek a third term and recently signed the new state budget that includes a compromise with GOP leaders.

“I think that budget compromise indicates all the more why we need to have a strong conservative Republican in the governor’s mansion so that you don’t have to give and take on so many of those things that don’t further the conservative vision for Wisconsin,” Berrien said. “So really it speaks all the more of why we need to have a Republican governor and extending the majorities in the Legislature.”

Berrien said he is selling himself as “the candidate most likely to win.”

“That is really the end goal, we need to get a conservative Republican in the governor’s seat, and also one who thinks not just about winning the governor’s seat, but thinks about leadership for the party statewide, because that leader has to be an individual who’s willing to look across all 72 counties, down to the precinct level in a military-like fashion,” Berrien said. “Taking pages out of the Democratic playbook, a fundraising machine to help candidates up and down the ticket to win down to the lowest level up to the highest.”

“I see a clear path to be able to help them do better,” Berrien said.

Washington County Exec Josh Schoemann is also running for the GOP nomination, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, is among those considering a bid. 

Also on the sprogram, Brad Toll, the president and CEO of Discover Green Bay, says the city will likely bid to host another NFL draft after the successful event in April.

“I would say we probably will,” Toll said. “There’s a long line of communities waiting for the draft to come to their city, so it may be a while, but I think the NFL would welcome the opportunity to return.”

New reports released by tourism officials show the 2025 draft generated nearly $73 million in economic impact in Brown County and nearly $105 million statewide.

“The projection for total economic impact was about $94 million or so,” Toll said. “It ended up being about $10 million more, but more of those dollars were spent further north, so we were a little surprised by how much was spent in Brown County, but as you think about it, that’s where the event was.”

Toll says the city and region are capitalizing on the event and the sheer amount of attention the city received.

“The viewership was so huge — in fact, the second-most-watched draft in NFL history,” Toll said. “Some of the media coverage just using our logo, Discover Green Bay, 746 stories were written, mostly with a tourism twist. That would have cost us $50 million in advertising.”

“I was just visiting with destination leaders from throughout Wisconsin,” Toll added. “A lot of them were saying, you know, ‘It’s a little bit stagnant this summer, not the numbers that are typical, a little bit slower.’ They sure aren’t in Green Bay. We are having a fantastic year.”

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