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Talkspace works with most major insurers including Tricare. Match with a licensed therapist today@talkspace.com military go to talkspace.com military to get started today. That's talkspace.com military 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%. 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 healthcare to give it over to his right wing oligarch friends. 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 2000 manufacturing jobs as Trump has catapulted the United States into a manufacturing recession. 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 could 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 1700 deaths. I mean, just in terms of the economic impact of what Trump's epa, which is really anti EPA and 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 or to attend schools here in the United States. 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. agricultural 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. It's all the top people spanning multiple administrations. Democrats, Republicans, Independents. 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. 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 and on the long term competitiveness of US 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. 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 US Agriculture culture 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 US 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. 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. And this is of course 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 US Agriculture. The 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 to pursue and secure meaningful, enforceable free trade agreements that can be passed by Congress and have the full force and effect of law. Direct the administration to prioritize the negotiations. Association 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 daily 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 H2A program. Restore funding for land grant agricultural research, critical USDA staffing and domestic international food aid programs. 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 on a. 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. I mean, Tom, Tom Tiffany is Mr. Tom Tiffany Maga. Look at, look at Donald Trump's endorsement. He goes, we're doing great with the farmers, me and Tom Tiffany is what he says in his endorsement. No, you're not. 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, you know, it's, it's a, it's at a crisis point where people are dying and feel that they're about to die. 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.
Sarah Rodriguez
Yeah, you know, I'm a, 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 healthcare. 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, these things that, that Trump and you know, the Republican like Tom Tiffany here in Wisconsin that they've broken and these costs are just going up exponentially for people, you.
Interviewer
Know, 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 timeframe, we let people, we let people die instead of giving them access to health care in this country. And then you have Trump and Dr. Oz and RFK Jr doing pull ups and doing weird voice, whatever. And he's out, 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 them.
Sarah 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 healthcare 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. 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. Right.
Interviewer
And then on top of that, you have the nursing profession under attack as well. Nurses very vocal after Trump won about rfk.
Sarah Rodriguez
Yep.
Interviewer
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, you know, your platform going forward for Wisconsin, like, what can I do to help people access health, healthcare, access education, afford homes, do things for the Trump regime. They sit around and they're just like, no, we should do. Let's not call nursing a profession anymore. 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.
Sarah 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 healthcare system. Anybody who's accessed the healthcare 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, you're just going to make the whole healthcare system worse.
Interviewer
Talk to us about this primary, though it's a crowded field, spoke with some of the other candidates. 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?
Sarah 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 healthcare 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. 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 be 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.
Interviewer
You know what? I appreciate, you know, something you did recently where you acknowledged 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. This is not what ICE is supposed to do. This is not what Border Patrol is supposed to do. It needs to. 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 gonna fight back against.
Sarah Rodriguez
Against it? 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, health care systems, 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. 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.
Interviewer
And then before we go, where could people learn more about the campaign? And what else do you want to say? We have 6 million subscribers out there who are watching. People in Wisconsin know the work you do as a lieutenant governor. But for those who are being introduced to you for the first time, what's kind of your final message and your pitch to everybody?
Sarah Rodriguez
Well, you know, politicians aren't so trusted right now, but nurses are. And I think that this is a way that we can have leadership where we can get more trust in government. Government. If you want to learn more about my campaign, you can go to Sarah S A R A4W I F O R W I dot com, learn more about my stances, my healthcare plan. We're rolling out different initiatives and would love people's support along the way.
Interviewer
Lieutenant Governor Sarah Rodriguez, we appreciate you, Sharon. Come back and let's. Let's chat more.
Sarah Rodriguez
All right, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Interviewer
Everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.
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Episode: Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez on Wisconsin Governor’s Race
Date: February 17, 2026
Host: MeidasTouch Network (Ben, Brett & Jordy Meiselas)
Featured Guest: Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez
This episode dives into the upcoming Wisconsin Governor’s race, focusing on current Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, a registered nurse and Democratic candidate. The conversation explores Wisconsin’s pressing political and economic issues—including healthcare, farm industry turmoil under Trump-era policies, and rising right-wing extremism—while highlighting Rodriguez’s policy vision and personal journey.
This episode is a focused look at the state-by-state impact of national policies, told through the lens of Wisconsin’s upcoming gubernatorial election. Sara Rodriguez positions herself as a uniquely qualified candidate with professional healthcare experience and a track record of bipartisan appeal. The discussion is urgent, candid, and fiercely supportive of democracy, offering both policy detail and personal narrative.
Listeners unfamiliar with Wisconsin politics will leave with a clear picture of the stakes, the players, and the sharp differences between candidates—especially when it comes to defending healthcare, democracy, and basic human rights.