Dem gubernatorial contenders knocked Donald Trump as they argued to party activists that they’re best positioned to beat Republican Tom Tiffany this fall.

They also knocked Tiffany, a Republican congressman from northern Wisconsin who’s the presumptive GOP nominee, with former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes calling him a “coward.”

Each candidate got 5 minutes to address the crowd after the party did a random drawing to establish the speaking order. Here are highlights of their remarks by speaking order:

*Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez touted her travels to all 72 counties each year during her time in office, saying she regularly hears concerns from people who are angry because they can’t make ends meet, even when they do everything right. Living paycheck to paycheck, they’re looking for relief.

But the former lawmaker from Waukesha County said Trump doesn’t care and Tiffany voted for every piece of the president’s agenda that has driven costs higher. Rodriguez played off of a Tiffany ad in which he calls himself the “dam man” after his work as a dam tender on the Willow Flowage in northern Wisconsin.

“If you want to beat the dam man, I’m damn sure I’m the proven winner who’s ready to do it,” she said.

*Joel Brennan, who served as Gov. Tony Evers’ first Department of Administration secretary, said he helped clean up a mess left behind by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker. Brennan said Walker treated working people like a punching bag for eight years. 

Brennan, who said Tiffany wants to run the Walker playbook, declared Wisconsin Dems have the opportunity this fall to stop playing defense and to go on offense if they win a trifecta.

“We can flip both chambers, close the book on that Walker era for good and forge a new Wisconsin for the next generation,” Brennan said. “This is our opening. We gotta run through it.”

*Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley repeated his vow to repeal the minimum markup on fuel sales, while touting what he said was a record of leadership. He said that includes building 1,000 housing units in Milwaukee County, both in the state’s largest city and its suburbs.

Crowley, one of two Black candidates in the race along with Barnes, said he’s often asked if a Black candidate can win the race for governor. One person in the convention hall yelled out, “Hell yeah.”

Crowley said the answer is yes if it’s a candidate who’s built a record of public accomplishments.

“The answer is simple, y’all,” Crowley said. “Yes, and I am that candidate.”

*State Sen. Kelda Roys, of Madison, argued she has a proven track record, from opposing Foxconn to being one of the first candidates in 2011 to refuse corporate PAC money. 

Roys, who served one term in the Assembly from 2009-11 and was elected to the Senate in 2020, said she’s ready to lead Wisconsin Democrats from “the goalie era to the governing era.”

“I don’t just have bullet points. I have bills. I don’t just have social posts, I have plans,” Roys said. “We know this is possible because we’ve done it before.”

*Barnes, the 2022 Dem U.S. Senate nominee, said his campaign has been focused on the general election and knocked Tiffany for bending his knee to a “wannabe dictator,” saying the Republican has already done it in the state Legislature.

“If I have to be more clear, Tom Tiffany is a coward,” Barnes said.

He added it’s not enough to be anti-Trump this fall, and Dems need a nominee who “rejects the Washington way of rampant corruption and corporate greed.” Barnes added he can’t be bought because the “fight is for you, not corporations, not the billionaires who get rich off the backs of working people.”

*State Rep. Francesca Hong, of Madison, sought to draw a line to her campaign from progressive figures such as: Vel Phillips, the first Black candidate elected statewide in Wisconsin; former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who helped found Earth Day; and former Gov. Bob La Follette, a leader of the progressive movement in the early 20th century.

She said they, too, were called unreasonable, impractical and unelectable for their ideas. Hong said she is the only candidate who’s released a plan for free childcare, who has considered the dangers of AI, and who takes income and power inequality seriously.

“Possibility is bound only by our ambition,” Hong said. “We must ask ourselves whether our conviction is once again strong enough to meet the demands of dangerous and desperate times.”

*Former WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes said she cleaned up Walker and Trump’s “mess” with Foxconn then helped Evers keep the state’s economy going during COVID-19.

Hughes said she then helped Evers continue to bolster Main Street post-pandemic with grants that helped 9,500 Wisconsinites launch businesses. She said work remained to fully fund public schools, create a more affordable health care system that works for everyone and build more housing.

“Wisconsinites are with us,” Hughes said. “They will trust us to deliver economic justice. But they know in order to have economic justice, you have to have economic growth, and we have to deliver a candidate to them who has a proven result of building economic growth.”