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Joel Brennan: “We just had 60 operational referenda.”

Featuring: Joel Brennan, Democratic | Candidate, Governor of Wisconsin

Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late

Published April 18, 2026 | Video Starts at 35:32

You go and do what you're supposed to do. And to my way of thinking, why wait three years? What part of the state can wait another three years? We just had 60 operational referenda. I was in Hustersford several weeks ago. They're looking to be the first school district to dissolve now because they had another failed referendum. (35:32–35:35)

CLAIM

Asserts that there were 60 operational referenda recently in Wisconsin.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Joel Brennan

“That's two and a half billion dollars that we have spent of state money to cover our own people.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 21:41-21:48
“Taking $800 billion out of [Medicaid] for the next decade to pay for, you know, tax cuts for the rich.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 22:05-22:13
“The President said he's introducing a budget that increases military spending by $1.4 trillion, by 40%.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 22:13-22:22
“We're going to need 4,000 nurses a year and 3,000 primary care docs in the last. In the next decade.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 23:59-24:06
“When I started in state government, there were 20 counties that didn't have a practicing OBGYN. I think it's like 26 now.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 27:48-27:55
“The average age of a first-time homebuyer in Wisconsin has gone from 33 to 40 in just five years.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 31:23-31:34
“I would use the executive office and the authority of the office to have real relationships with people.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 00:40-00:48
“I served as the top appointed official in Governor Evers cabinet for three years.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 02:02-02:07
“I think I've been in 10 counties. I've had meaningful stops in about 10 counties in Wisconsin.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 02:13-02:18
“The main person who was responsible for the original funding of Discovery World is a guy named Mike Cudahay.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 05:29-05:36
“Mike Cudahay created a company called Marquette Electronics.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 05:37-05:43
“He [Mike Cudahay] bought parts of it [Marquette Electronics] from GE, ended up many years later selling it back to GE for a lot more.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 05:39-05:51
“We created, to that point, the largest surplus in state history.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 10:11-10:15
“We grew a rainy day fund by about 10x and got to the point about where it is now.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 10:14-10:20
“We used the resources that we got from the federal government.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 10:56-11:00
“We helped the governor put together two budgets, the first two budgets that he introduced when he was in his first term.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 12:54-13:01
“The legislature would take [the budget] very politely, go and throw it in the garbage can because they had such a big majority.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 13:20-13:27
“We are still in Wisconsin paying for, in my view, paying the consequence of the 2010 elections where Scott Walker was elected.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 15:03-15:13
“The right wing legislature, Act 10, you know, the gerrymandered maps. We are still just coming out of that.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 15:12-15:19
“We led Wisconsin towards better health care, better housing opportunities, more investment in public education.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 15:29-15:36
“Wisconsin can be a leader and show that there are different ways it doing this.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 16:07-16:12
“I think I can expand the electorate because of some of the work I've done in working with business and government and the nonprofit sector.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 18:24-18:32
“We need to make sure that we win those three or four seats in the state Senate that we have the opportunity to and a handful in the state…”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 18:43-18:55
“Governor Evers is leaving to us a legislature that isn't dominated by Republicans.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 21:08-21:18
“Robin Voss single handedly, in some ways stood against this.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 21:17-21:22
“We have been paying to cover people in Minnesota, in Iowa, in Alabama, you know, in every other state, up to 40 more states.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 21:52-22:00
“There's been legislation that's been proposed to cap [insulin costs] at 30 or $35 a month in Wisconsin.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 22:47-22:53
“We're one of the last states that's done, still does that, mainly on a county by county basis.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 24:32-24:37
“We have made in the state Supreme Court, we've been able to give some clarity to something.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 26:19-26:24
“In some places around Wisconsin, [maternal health outcomes] have been like in my home community of Milwaukee and you know, young women of…”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 29:20-29:31
“There's about, we're about 70,000 entry-level homes short of where we should be over the next four years.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 31:23-31:34
“Wida, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, they can issue their own mortgages.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 32:34-32:40
“There was a suit filed by parents, by administrators, by school districts to try to get that [school] funding formula declared…”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 34:33-34:42
“Hustersford [is] looking to be the first school district to dissolve now because they had another failed referendum.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 35:35-35:43
“Wisconsin's formula is one of one in the country.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 35:52-35:57
“There was a blue ribbon bipartisan commission about what we should do around education funding. That was in 2018.”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 36:55-37:04
“There are 6 million people in the state [of Wisconsin].”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 44:33-44:35
“We haven't changed [our motto].”
Joel Brennan on Running for Wisconsin Governor: Healthcare, Housing, and Why He Jumped In Late | Uploaded April 18, 2026 | 45:53-45:55