Tony Evers

Anthony Steven Evers ( ; born November 5, 1951) is an American politician and educator serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2009 to 2019 as Wisconsin's 26th superintendent of public instruction.

Born and raised in Plymouth, Wisconsin, Evers was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, eventually receiving a Ph.D. After working as a teacher for several years, he became a school administrator, serving as a principal, until he assumed the office of district superintendent. Evers first ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1993 and again in 2001, losing both elections. Evers was instead appointed deputy superintendent, a position he served in from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, he ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction again, this time winning. He was reelected twice, in 2013 and 2017.

In August 2017, Evers announced that he would run for governor of Wisconsin in the 2018 election. He won the crowded Democratic primary in August 2018, defeating ten other candidates with 41% of the vote. Incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker was seen as vulnerable and had been criticized for his education policies. Evers defeated Walker by a margin of 1.1% and was reelected by a larger margin of 3.4% in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Tim Michels.

Evers frequently uses the governor's veto power due to his opposition to much of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature's agenda. As governor of Wisconsin, his veto power is stronger than veto power in other U.S. states. He has used his veto power more frequently than any governor in Wisconsin history, and has used line-item veto power to change Republican-authored bills.

Early life and career

Evers was born on November 5, 1951, in Plymouth, Wisconsin, the son of Jean (Gorrow) and Raymond Evers, a physician. His first job was "as a kid, scraping mold off of cheese" in Plymouth. As a young adult, Evers worked as a caregiver in a nursing home. He attended Plymouth High School. He earned bachelor's (1973), master's (1976), and doctoral degrees (1986) in educational leadership from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He began his professional career as a teacher and media coordinator in the Tomah school district. From 1979 to 1980 he was principal of Tomah Elementary School, and from 1980 to 1984 he was principal of Tomah High School. From 1984 to 1988 Evers was superintendent of the Oakfield school district, and from 1988 to 1992 he was superintendent of the Verona school district. From 1992 to 2001 he was administrator of the Cooperative Education Service Agency (CESA) in Oshkosh.

Department of Public Instruction (2001–2019)

Evers first ran for state superintendent, a nonpartisan post, in 1993 and was defeated by John Benson. In 2001, he ran again and finished third in the primary to Elizabeth Burmaster. After her election, Burmaster appointed Evers deputy superintendent, a position he held until Burmaster was appointed president of Nicolet College. While serving as Burmaster's deputy, Evers served a term as president of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

State Superintendent

Evers then ran again in 2009, this time winning. He defeated Rose Fernandez in the general election. In April 2013, Evers defeated Don Pridemore and won reelection. In 2017, Evers defeated Republican candidate Lowell Holtz, a former Beloit superintendent, with about 70% of the vote.

In 2009, Evers used government email accounts for fundraising purposes. He and another government employee were fined $250 each for soliciting campaign donations during work hours.

In 2014, Evers proposed a $1.7 billion hike in state funding for secondary schools. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker never included Evers's plan in his proposed state budgets, citing the cost. In 2017, Evers called for a tenfold increase in school mental health funding.

In October 2018, a divided federal appeals court found that, because there was a nearby archdiocesan school, Evers had violated neither the U.S. Constitution's Free Exercise Clause nor its Establishment Clause when he denied busing to an independent Catholic school.

Governor of Wisconsin (2019–present)

Elections

2018

On August 23, 2017, Evers announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin in 2018. He cited his 2017 reelection as state superintendent with over 70% of the vote, as well as his criticism of Governor Walker, as key reasons for deciding to run. Evers launched his first campaign advertisement against Walker on August 28, 2017. Evers won the eight-candidate Democratic primary on August 14, 2018. On November 6, 2018, Evers narrowly defeated Walker in the general election.

2022

Evers sought reelection in 2022. His 2018 running mate, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, instead chose to run for U.S. Senate. In the August 2022 Democratic primary, Evers was unopposed and Brookfield-area state representative Sara Rodriguez was nominated as his running mate. Evers and Rodriguez prevailed in the general election, defeating the Republican ticket of Tim Michels and Roger Roth.

Tenure

Evers has extensively used his veto power, due to his opposition to the vast majority of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature's agenda. He has used his veto power more frequently than any governor in Wisconsin history, and has used line-item veto power to rewrite Republican-authored bills.

Evers's vetoes have included laws related to election procedures, government powers during a pandemic, education, federal aid, redistricting, guns, police and crime, abortion, social welfare programs, and regulations and licensing.

Republican efforts to restrict gubernatorial power

Before Evers took office, the Republican-led legislature passed new laws weakening the offices of the governor and attorney general. They targeted Evers's authority over economic development issues, required his administration to rewrite thousands of government documents, and required the attorney general to get legislative approval before settling lawsuits. The legislature also restricted voting access. Governor Walker signed all the legislation over Evers's objections.Laurel White
Federal Judge Strikes Down Lame-Duck Changes To Wisconsin Voting Laws
NPR (January 17, 2019). These actions were challenged as unconstitutional, with some voting law changes struck down by a federal district court but later restored by the U.S. Seventh Circuit.

Also before Evers took office, the legislature, Governor Walker, and conservative-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court reduced Evers's ability to appoint new administrators. After losing the election, but before leaving office, Walker appointed 82 people and the legislature confirmed them. When a judge declared these appointments unconstitutional, Evers replaced 15 of Walker's appointees. These new appointments were endorsed by a Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision, but later overruled by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The 15 Walker appointees were reinstated.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court also allowed most of the lame-duck laws the legislature adopted, defeating lawsuits brought by the League of Women Voters and Service Employees International Union. The lawsuits largely hinged on the constitutionality of the legislature holding such votes in "extraordinary sessions"—special sessions not called by the governor. Such sessions are not explicitly authorized by the constitution or state law, so litigants contended that the acts of such sessions are not constitutional. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected those arguments.

Evers's problems with Republican appointees continued into his term. Late in Evers's first term, many Walker appointees refused to leave office when their terms expired. Evers appointed replacements, but Senate Republicans did not act on the appointments. Evers challenged the holdovers in state court, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that appointees whose terms had expired could remain in their positions indefinitely so long as the Senate refused to confirm a replacement. The Senate also wielded the confirmation power to punish Evers appointees. The Senate has so far rejected 21 appointees since Evers took office; in the 40 years before Evers's term, the Senate had only rejected four nominees.

In Evers's second term, Republicans sought to enact constitutional amendments to further limit the governor's powers. In 2024, Wisconsin voters were asked to vote on two amendments that would limit the governor's control over state spending. One would invalidate any spending decisions made by the governor or other agency that was not explicitly appropriated by legislation. The other would require legislative approval for usage of any federal funds sent to the state. Voters rejected both amendments in the August 13 primary elections.

First term

In February 2019, Evers withdrew Wisconsin National Guard forces from the border with Mexico, where President Donald Trump had called for a "national emergency". Evers said, "There is simply not ample evidence to support the president's contention that there exists a national security crisis at our Southwestern border. Therefore, there is no justification for the ongoing presence of Wisconsin National Guard personnel at the border."

In February 2019, Evers's administration prepared a budget proposal that included proposals to legalize the medical use of marijuana for patients with certain conditions, upon the recommendation from a physician or practitioner. Evers also proposed to decriminalize the possession or distribution of 25 grams or less of marijuana in Wisconsin and to repeal the requirement that users of cannabidiol obtain a physician's certification every year. Evers's marijuana proposals were opposed by Republican leaders in the Legislature.

On March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Evers declared a public health emergency in the state. The next day, he ordered all schools in the state to close by March 18, with no possibility of reopening until at least April 6. On March 17, Evers instituted a statewide ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people, following an advisory from the federal government. This was expanded to a statewide "safer at home" on March 25, originally set to expire on April 25, with people allowed to leave their homes only for essential business and exercise.

On April 6, Evers issued an executive order to delay the state's April 7 presidential primary, as well as other coinciding elections. The move came in response to inaction by legislative Republicans to delay or otherwise modify the in-person election despite the widely perceived risk of worsening the spread of the virus if the election went ahead as planned. Evers had said on April 2 that he had no legal authority to issue such an order, and Republican leaders in the legislature used his own words against him when challenging the order in court. A conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked the executive order just hours after it was issued on April 6, and the election took place as scheduled on April 7.

On April 16, Evers ordered an extension of the statewide lockdown to May 26, and mandated all schools in the state to remain closed through the end of the academic year. The legislature promptly sued to block the order, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court's conservative majority ultimately struck it down on May 13, following the expiration of Evers's initial state of emergency. Evers responded to the suit by accusing legislative Republicans of a "power grab", and said they cared more about political power than people's lives. Republicans have called the extension an "abuse of power".

On April 20, Evers announced a recovery plan called the "Badger Bounce Back", laying out details of his plan for reopening Wisconsin's economy gradually as the pandemic subsides. The plan called for daily death tolls from the virus to drop for 14 continuous days before "phase one" could be initiated.

On July 30, Evers issued a statewide mask mandate in a new attempt to curb the increasing spread of the virus, declaring a new state of emergency in order to do so. Republicans promptly sued, arguing that he had overstepped his power. In February 2021, the legislature voted to repeal the statewide mask mandate. Evers countered by issuing a new statewide mask mandate.

After the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Evers issued a statement denouncing the excessive use of force by police and invoking the names of African Americans killed by law enforcement. He said, "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country."

After the subsequent unrest in Kenosha, Evers deployed the Wisconsin National Guard to Kenosha. Looting and damage to vehicles, businesses, and public facilities such as schools, the Dinosaur Discovery Museum, and a public library were reported during the unrest. Evers also responded by calling state lawmakers into a special session to pass legislation addressing police brutality.

On March 31, 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Evers's mask mandate in a 4–3 ruling, split along conservative-liberal ideological lines, with the court ruling against Evers's argument that the changing nature of the pandemic justified multiple states of emergency.

On April 30, 2021, Evers sought $1.6 billion in federal funds to expand access to Wisconsin's Medicaid program. He also proposed legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, as well as increasing the minimum wage and granting public workers collective bargaining rights. Republicans in the state legislature blocked all the proposals.

Second term

After Evers's reelection in 2022, the legislature had to come to terms with Evers over the languishing issue of revenue for local governments. Municipalities of all sizes were struggling to make their budgets, with many threatening deep cuts to police and other services. Evers and the legislature compromised on shared revenue in 2023 Wisconsin Act 12, revising the formula to give an average boost of about 36% to the shared revenue for each municipality. Municipalities were also granted additional flexibility to raise new revenue through sales taxes.

In the 2023 budget, with his line-item veto, Evers increased the limit under which school districts could request additional tax levies by referendum. In that budget, he also vetoed an income tax cut for the top two brackets of Wisconsin earners and an attempt to condense Wisconsin's four income tax brackets into three.

Later that year, Evers and the legislature compromised on a funding package for American Family Field, as the Milwaukee Brewers and Major League Baseball had begun threatening that Milwaukee could lose the team if improvements were not made to the stadium.

After the 2024 Wisconsin state legislative elections, Evers called for the creation of a statewide citizen-initiated referendum process.

In his 2025 budget proposal, Evers proposed changing the term "mother" to "inseminated person" in state law. Evers also proposed raising the cost of Wisconsin fishing licenses by $10.

In July 2023, Evers used his partial veto authority to extend certain school funding provisions for over 400 years. Specifically, he exercised his partial veto authority to extend a $325 per-pupil revenue increase for K–12 public schools from the originally legislated 2023–24 and 2024–25 school years through to the year 2425. Evers achieved this by striking the digits "20" and the hyphen from the phrase "2023–24 and 2024–25", transforming it into "2023–2425." This maneuver leveraged Wisconsin's uniquely broad partial veto powers, which allow governors to remove words, numbers, and punctuation from appropriations bills. The action sparked criticism from Republican lawmakers and business groups, who argued it violated the state's 1990 "Vanna White" amendment, designed to curb such creative vetoes. In April 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Evers's veto in a 4–3 decision, ruling that his alteration of digits did not contravene constitutional limits on gubernatorial veto powers.

Political positions

Abortion

In December 2021, as the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', a case that overturned ''Roe v. Wade'', Evers vetoed five bills that would have restricted access to reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin, saying "as long as I'm governor, I will veto any legislation that turns back the clock on reproductive rights in this state—and that's a promise."

Education

During his 2018 campaign, Evers said he supported more funding for K-12 education and wanted to work with Republicans to do more to help underperforming schools. He would like to expand Pre-K education to all students and continue the freeze of the in-state tuition price for higher education.

In July 2023, Evers made a line-item veto to the state budget for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 that enshrined per pupil increases in school funding of $325 a year until 2425. He did this by striking the hyphen and "20"s from where the budget bill mentioned the 2024–2025 school year. In April 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the validity of this veto; in the majority opinion, justice Jill Karofsky wrote that partial veto power is not constitutionally limited by "how much or how little the partial vetoes change policy, even when that change is considerable".

Gerrymandering

Evers has criticized Wisconsin's legislative maps as "some of the most gerrymandered, extreme maps in the United States," citing as evidence the fact that the state legislature has opposed policies such as legalizing marijuana and expanding Medicaid despite polls showing that a majority of Wisconsinites support both. In January 2020, he created a nonpartisan redistricting commission by executive order with the intent of drawing an alternative map proposal for post- 2020 census redistricting to counter the proposal the Republican-controlled legislature has said it will put forward if the issue ends up in the state's court system, as it has under past periods of divided government in Wisconsin.

With the maps stuck in legislative gridlock, both sides sought relief from the courts. The Democrats sued in federal court; federal courts had handled redistricting in Wisconsin every time it had hit gridlock for the past 60 years. Republicans petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which had not handled a redistricting decision since 1964. The Court, with a 4–3 conservative majority, chose to assume jurisdiction and soon articulated that it would pursue a map with the least changes necessary from the existing one to bring it into compliance with the 2020 census figures. Complying with the Court's rules, Evers and legislative Republicans each submitted maps with only minor changes to the 2011 map. Either map would have left Republicans with significant structural advantages in the legislative elections. But Evers's map better complied with the Court's "least changes" rule, and so the Court's swing vote, Justice Brian Hagedorn, sided with the Court's three liberals to adopt it. Republicans appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which struck down the legislative map in an unsigned opinion, criticizing the flawed process the Wisconsin Supreme Court had used, saying that it failed to properly consider minority representation issues that arose from Evers's map. But the high court did allow Evers's least-change congressional map to stand, since it had no VRA implications. Chastened, Hagedorn sided with the court's three conservatives to drop Evers's map and select the Republican alternative. This map was used for the 2022 elections.

In April 2023, Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, flipping the majority to the liberals. Democratic-aligned interest groups brought new lawsuits, challenging the constitutionality of the 2022 legislative districts. In '' Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission'', the Court struck down the 2022 map on technical grounds and also found that the "least changes" rule had no basis in Wisconsin law or precedent and was therefore invalid. Evers was one of six parties to the lawsuit who proposed remedial redistricting plans. Court-hired consultants soon ruled out the two Republican proposals, saying they were both still gerrymanders. With the Court poised to select one of the four Democratic plans, Republicans in the legislature chose to embrace Evers's proposal. They first passed an amended version of the plan, seeking to protect a handful of incumbents, but Evers vetoed it. Republicans then passed Evers's original map without changes, and Evers signed it into law on February 19, 2024.

Evers also joined a lawsuit in the Wisconsin Supreme Court challenging the 2022 congressional district map. That map had been created using the Court's now discredited "least changes" rule, so Democratic-aligned litigants argued that it should also be reconsidered. The Court refused this case without explaining its reasoning.

Gun control

Evers supports universal background checks for gun purchases. He has also supported an extreme risk protection order act, commonly known as a " red flag law", which would permit loved ones or police to petition to have an individual's guns taken away if a judge deems them a risk to themselves or others.

Health care

Evers has said that Scott Walker's decisions about health care in Wisconsin led to higher insurance premiums for residents. He has pointed out that Minnesota accepted a Medicaid expansion and has been more proactive about healthcare overall, resulting in insurance premiums 47% lower than Wisconsin's. Evers supports legislation that would protect residents from higher costs for health insurance due to old age or preexisting conditions. He also supports allowing people to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until age 26. He plans to remove Wisconsin from a national lawsuit that seeks to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Using funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Evers allocated over $402 million to reduce pollutants in Wisconsin drinking water.

Immigration

Evers supports permitting undocumented immigrants living in Wisconsin to obtain driver's licenses, and has called this position "common sense".

In December 2019, in response to Trump's executive order requiring states' consent for refugee resettlement, Evers sent the administration a letter stating that Wisconsin would accept refugees, calling them "part of the fabric of hestate", and criticizing Trump's refugee policies as "overly cumbersome and inappropriate". In February 2020, Evers sent U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a letter asking him to halt negotiations with the government of Laos regarding deportations of Wisconsin's Hmong refugee population, who had previously been protected from deportation due to a long record of human rights violations in Laos.

Income tax

During the 2018 campaign, Evers proposed to cut income tax by 10% for Wisconsin residents who earn less than $100,000 per year. He also pledged not to raise taxes, saying, "I'm planning to raise no taxes." Evers's first budget proposal in 2019 increased taxes by $1.3 billion, about 1.5% of the $83 billion state budget. His second proposal reduced his proposed tax increase to $1 billion. Evers's tax increase included raising the gas tax, but the billion-dollar increase in state tax revenue came from reducing tax credits available to large manufacturers and wealthy tax filers with capital gains earnings of more than $300,000 per year. In later years, Evers fulfilled his proposal to cut income taxes by 10% making several line-item vetoes to specific elements, but largely leaving the budget as it was proposed by state Republicans.

Infrastructure

While campaigning for governor, Evers promised to focus on improving roads and bridges. Since he took office, his administration has improved over 8,600 miles of road and 2,000 bridges. These include $150 million in agricultural road grants. Other infrastructure projects include increased electrical vehicle charging stations.

LGBT rights

In June 2019, Evers issued an executive order to fly the rainbow flag at Wisconsin's Capitol Building for Pride month, making it the first time the rainbow flag had ever flown above the capitol.

On December 6, 2023, Evers vetoed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. He wrote in his veto message, "This type of legislation, and the rhetoric beget by pursuing it, harms LGBTQ people and kids' mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ hate and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites". Evers said, "I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids."

In April 2024, Evers vetoed a bill banning transgender athletes from sports and athletic teams.

Marijuana legalization

Having campaigned on his support of cannabis in Wisconsin, Evers announced in January 2019 the inclusion of medical marijuana in his state budget as a "first step" toward legalization. On February 7, he announced he would propose legalizing recreational marijuana in his 2021–2023 biennial budget.

The Republican-led legislature disagrees with Evers's support for recreational marijuana use, supporting only its medical use.

Personal life

Evers and his wife, Kathy, have three adult children and nine grandchildren.

Evers had esophageal cancer before undergoing surgery in 2008.

Electoral history

Superintendent of Public Instruction (1993)

Superintendent of Public Instruction (2001)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Nonpartisan Primary, February 20, 2001

Superintendent of Public Instruction (2009–2017)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Nonpartisan Primary, February 17, 2009

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 7, 2009

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 2, 2013

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Nonpartisan Primary, February 21, 2017

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 4, 2017

Wisconsin Governor (2018, 2022)

See also

* Governor of Wisconsin
** List of governors of Wisconsin
* Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin
** List of superintendents of public instruction of Wisconsin

References

External links

Governor Tony Evers
official government website
Tony for Wisconsin
campaign website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Evers, Tony
Democratic Party governors of Wisconsin
1951 births
20th-century American educators
21st-century Wisconsin politicians
21st-century American educators
Educators from Wisconsin
Living people
People from Plymouth, Wisconsin
People from Tomah, Wisconsin
Superintendents of public instruction of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education alumni
Wisconsin Democrats
2020 United States presidential electors