Pass the Torch: Tony Evers should not run for a third term as governor

Tony Evers has been a very good governor for the state of Wisconsin. 

You could even argue he’s been great, given the perilous moment in American democracy that’s surrounded his time in office. He’s been the central political figure in Wisconsin’s crawl back from the disastrous Scott Walker years, and as the bulwark against the heavily gerrymandered hard-right Republican-controlled legislature, with their obstructionist measures beginning even before Evers took office, and continuing — and sometimes accelerating — throughout his two terms. He brought sanity and stability to the state during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and has helped steer Wisconsin toward a brighter future. As Ben Wikler noted in a recent interview with The Recombobulation Area, Evers’ veto pen “has been one of the most important collections of atoms in the world in defense of democracy in this state,” and I wholeheartedly agree. Wisconsin is better off for having Tony Evers’ time as our governor. 

Dan Kaufman’s “The Fall of Wisconsin” documented the calamitous decline of the state throughout much of the 2010s, when Republicans controlled all three branches of government. In the six-and-a-half years since, Evers has never allowed Wisconsin to truly fall. He has been a remarkably important governor at a remarkably important moment. 

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To be sure, there have been times in which I’ve disagreed with the governor. There have been missteps or poor decisions. But much of that comes with the territory for nearly any public official with real power, and his successes have always overshadowed any shortcomings. Perhaps most importantly, he has always maintained a certain North Star of doing what’s right for Wisconsin. He’s been underestimated over and over again, and he’s proved many people wrong. It’s been a job well done by Two-Term Tony. 

But now, Evers is weighing a decision on whether to run for a third term, saying he’ll make the call after the state budget process is completed1. From the outside, it seems like he’s gearing up for another run, even if multiple sources say he genuinely has not yet made a decision. But I think running again would be the wrong choice.

All things must pass. Tony Evers should not seek a third term as governor of the state of Wisconsin. It is time for him to do what so many Democrats have struggled so mightily to do and step aside when the time is right. For the 73-year-old governor approaching a critical moment in his second term with 2026 and the midterms on the horizon, the right time is now. 

This is not ultimately an argument about ideological differences or policy disagreements. It’s not about any particularly regrettable actions Evers has taken while in office. He has served the state well. But he is not a young man, he is not going to be governor forever, and at a certain point, he’d be putting a whole lot more than his own legacy at risk by failing to recognize the long-term implications of not passing the torch to the next generation of leaders, and the short-term implications of running when you might be too old for the office. 

In November 2026, when the next gubernatorial election is held, Tony Evers will turn 75 years old2. If elected to a third term, he would turn 79 while in office, making him one of the nation’s oldest governors. He’s already the nation’s seventh-oldest governor, and five of those older than him are term-limited from running again. For anyone even in perfect health at that age, there are going to be risks involved — risks that are perhaps not worth taking, given recent history. 

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This is a conversation we need to be having and we need to be having it now. Refusing to do so is putting Wisconsin Democrats on the same path that national Democrats found themselves in in 2023 and early 2024, and by the time a change was made, so much of the damage had already been done. Joe Biden should never have run for re-election, and instead should have been the “bridge” candidate that he alluded to being when he ran in 2020, and this is a big reason why we are where we are. 

So, yes, the comparisons to the situation surrounding former president Joe Biden are inevitable. It is a central part about why I’m making this argument. But it’s not quite that simple. Evers-Biden does not amount to a direct, one-to-one comparison. Joe Biden is nearly a decade older than Evers, and while Biden was an unpopular president thought to be too old for the office even before the fateful June 27 debate last year, Evers might be the most well-liked politician in Wisconsin right now3. And while Evers may have verbal stumbles from time to time — the DNC roll call vote moment was probably the highest-profile example — his skills as an orator have never exactly been his calling card, and he has not shown the signs of cognitive decline that plagued the former president. The governor might seem a tad older now than when he was first elected, but not drastically so. He seems … well, about six or seven years older than he did when he was first elected to the office at the age of 67, which is what he is.

To be sure, there can be effective older politicians, and there can be problematic younger ones. Age alone is far from a lone determining factor in assessing the quality of an elected official. Donald Trump is the oldest president ever elected, and JD Vance is one of the youngest vice presidents in American history, and both are extraordinarily poor leaders.

Truthfully, though, we should not be expecting so many of our elected officials to serve into their late 70s, or beyond. Trump is too old to be president, too. It should not be so difficult for politicians to retire at a more reasonable age. There is a reason this is generally considered retirement age. Along with the presidency, where Biden and then Trump will each likely set the record for oldest presidents ever to serve in the office, this problem has been most pronounced in the U.S. Senate, where there are more senators over the age of 75 (12) than there are senators younger than 50 (11)4. And the gerontocracy is a problem that permeates every level of government. 

When politicians remain in power later and later into life, it stymies the ability for new leaders to rise. It’s hard for a next generation of leadership to emerge without actual opportunities to do so. We’ve obviously seen that happen at the national level, and here in Wisconsin, there’s a big, weird Democratic primary looming for the next open race for statewide office, but we’re not going to know how these candidates might campaign or how voters might respond to them until it goes from the hypothetical to reality. 

Clinging to power for too long can be more about one’s own personal glory. Serving in public office is about the people, not the person. The office is bigger than the person elected to it, and failure to grasp that is its own form of small-d democratic undoing. 

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The Democratic Party, in particular, has been haunted by its unwillingness to pass the torch to a new generation. Clearly. Whether it’s been in Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance after his regrettable decision to seek a second term, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg refusing to retire at age 80 following President Barack Obama’s re-election, or even in more recent years, as eight members of Congress have died in office since November 2022, including three who have died in office since November’s election (all Democrats, by the way), it’s been a massive, inescapable problem for the party. 

How many more signs do Democrats need? 

How could we not be talking about this, at this critical moment? At very least, this demands a conversation, which no one appears to be having — at least not publicly. Maybe Democrats still haven’t learned anything from their failures in 2024. 

Because what happened with Joe Biden last year — from the debate to the dropout and everything connected to it — directly contributed to Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The ongoing fallout surrounding Biden’s decline continues to threaten the credibility of the party at large. So, when are Democrats going to wake up and take this problem seriously? 

Tony Evers has the opportunity now to do what other Democrats haven’t and actually step aside when the time is right. It would be courageous for him to do so, and such a decision would have tremendous significance. 

It’s one thing for a safe, blue-state senator like 80-year-old Dick Durbin of Illinois to say he’s retiring. It would be quite another for Evers, a popular 73-year-old governor in a purple state, to do so. But until the Democratic Party faces this problem head on, it’s going to continue to linger. By choosing not to seek re-election now, Evers could serve as an example for Democrats around the country. And here in Wisconsin, we know that what starts here can reverberate nationally. 

A third term is also a different kind of ask for voters. In a recent interview with Wisconsin Eye, State Sen. Kelda Roys, who ran against Evers in the 2018 primary, made the point recently that “traditionally, two terms has been plenty for a lot of Wisconsin governors.” Since the state constitution was amended in 1967 to change the length of a gubernatorial term from two years to four, Tommy Thompson has been the only governor serving a four-year term elected to a third (and then fourth). Third terms are more difficult electorally, too. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin each faced the toughest races of their careers, respectively, and Scott Walker lost in his bid for a third term for governor. 

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That joins a number of other reasons (which we’ll get into) why now is the right time for Evers to pass the torch. But perhaps the biggest reason among them amounts to this:

In May of 2011, the late Herb Kohl was 76 years old when he announced he’d be retiring at the end of his term. In the 2012 election, holding the seat for Democrats was far from guaranteed, coming off a brutal midterm where Scott Walker and Ron Johnson won statewide and Republicans flipped the state legislature. But Tammy Baldwin won — defeating Tommy Thompson, no less — and the torch was successfully passed, and now Baldwin is serving in her third term in the U.S. Senate. Kohl’s legacy is now undeniable — and he got to spend his golden years riding shotgun in the vehicle leading the Milwaukee Bucks’ championship parade instead of dodging questions about whether or not he was mentally competent while in office, whether or not he was covering that up, and whether that contributed to the rise of fascism in America. 

At a news conference announcing his retirement, Kohl said this:

“The office doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the people of Wisconsin, and there is something to be said for not staying in office too long.”

He couldn’t have been more right — or more prescient.

So, does Tony Evers want his legacy to be more like that of Herb Kohl or of Joe Biden?

On Tuesday, June 10, Dan Shafer and Angela Lang will be guest hosting “The Maggie Daun Show” from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. across the Civic Media network (540 AM in Milwaukee), discussing this piece with listeners.

You can listen to the station in your community, stream live on the free Civic Media app, or livestream the show on the Civic Media YouTube channel here. If you miss it live, you can visit the official show page to find podcasts from each hour.

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Topics include:

• Reckoning with Biden

• The big, weird primary looms — and it would be a good thing for Wisconsin Democrats

• Midterm history and the GOP’s lackluster 2026 field

• Tantalizing trifecta potential

• Turning the page and making way for a new generation

Reckoning with Biden

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