MADISON, Wis. – With 2020 wrapping up, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is reflecting on what has been a tough year to lead the Badger State.

The governor sat down for a virtual chat with Spectrum News 1 Political Reporter Anthony DaBruzzi to discuss the most challenging moments of this year and the priorities that lie ahead in 2021.
 

How Are You Doing During Such a Challenging Year to Lead the State?


“Good, I mean Kathy and I are, you know, we've been around the block and we get frustrated. I guess our biggest frustration is the inability to be with our kids and grandkids as much as we'd like, but it's important. 

It's important to understand that as Governor and as First Lady, we need to follow our own advice and we do that as much as possible.”

 

What's Been the Biggest Challenge Dealing with the Coronavirus?

 
“Our biggest challenge is Republicans and their allies on the Supreme Court didn't give me the same ability that other governors have in the other 49 states. And, that was a challenge, but where I'm happiest is that we kind of dusted that off and said 'Okay, what can we accomplish?' And so we spent our time making sure that we had as much personal protective equipment as possible, making sure that we were doing contact tracing, making sure that we're testing—all the things that we had control over. 
 

 
I feel good about that. My frustration was around the limited number of things that I could do as governor. And I think at the end of the day, that caused more people to get sick. And frankly, cause more people that got sick, the more deaths we have. Our death rate is high, and it shouldn't have been that way, but we did as much as we could with these tools that we had and I feel very, very good about that and it's a reflection of the resilience of the people in Wisconsin.”

 

Being in a Divided Government Isn't Easy but What Can You Do? What Can Democrats Do to Make the Next Session as Productive as Possible?


“I'll talk about a few things that I know both sides care about, and hopefully we get someplace. Both sides care about, and we started on that issue over the summer, of finding ways to make policing more transparent and more accountable, and how that'll look going forward and making sure that we have everybody on board. 
 

 

Whether it's police, the people that are concerned about transparency and accountability and policing, I think there's plenty of space there for common ground. I think there's plenty of space around the issue of criminal justice reform. I think there's plenty of space, you know, there isn't a Republican that doesn't want good, clean drinking water in the state of Wisconsin, nor Democrats, so we need to, you know, there are going to be things that we're going to fight about around the edges but there's some basic things that I know we can make good headway on. 

Even though the budget was somewhat contentious, we did eventually find common ground around education and health care and also our infrastructure in the state, so we'll continue to doing it. I'll try to do it in a way that's respectful to all sides and see if we can make some good headway.”
  

From a Pandemic to Protests to a Recall Effort, 2020 Has Certainly Been a Challenging Year. Is There Anything You Wish You Would Have Done Differently?

 
"I'm not sure we could have done anything differently, to be honest with you. The recall petition was going to happen regardless. And clearly, it didn't have enough wind behind the sails to do anything. And I never worried about that anyway. If it happened, it happened. If it didn't, it didn't. You know, there are a lot of governors that were in the same position. 
 

 
But no, I, I'm not sure—there's no regrets. I sure wish we would have had the opportunity to get the Legislature back in session as it relates to agriculture issues and farming issues that we have had last winter and last spring. We called a special session, nothing happened. And, you know, during the summer we had lots of people concerned about how policing looks in the state and we had special sessions set and I think we could have had something that really all sides could have agreed upon and we missed an opportunity there and I feel badly about that. 
 

 
If there's anything we did wrong to cause that to happen, I'd love to know what it is, but we missed a couple opportunities to do some really important things.”

 

Do you have a message for Wisconsinites going into 2021?

 
“I just want to thank the people of Wisconsin. It's been a tough road and one of the reasons I'm thanking them is to remind them that it's not over yet. It's not even close to being over. We're going to need your resilience even more.”