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Melissa Hughes: “The governor created the Office of Rural Prosperity and put…”

Featuring: Melissa Hughes, Secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation

WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters

Published May 17, 2026 | Video Starts at 21:33

And one thing that your question just made me think of, that I want to come back to is when I started at wedc, The governor created the Office of Rural Prosperity and put it at WEDC. And we had a Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity. And as we talked about how to put people into that Blue Ribbon Commission, often these commissions are politicos. (21:33–21:38)

CLAIM

Asserts that the governor established the Office of Rural Prosperity within WEDC.

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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Melissa Hughes

“We were able to renegotiate the agreement with Foxconn and save the taxpayers from about $2.85 billion worth of liability.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 07:32-07:43
“Wisconsin was number one in the country for delivering federal dollars to businesses and for economic development.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 08:36-08:43
“Over 70% of [businesses participating in the Main Street Bounce Back program] were women-owned businesses.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 09:47-09:51
“They're investing in a new facility in Jefferson County, $600 million, and then expanding their Walworth county facility by $250 million.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 25:41-25:52
“Everybody [should be] on the ballot so that we can make those choices.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 03:01-56:10
“For 17 years, I worked for Organic Valley.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 04:24-04:27
“When I started there, it was about 500 farmers, a couple hundred employees.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 04:26-04:34
“Governor Evers came and said, would you take your skills that you know about rural communities and about farming and agriculture and help…”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 06:24-06:39
“The very first day as secretary, they sat me down and said, great, now you have to clean up Foxconn.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 06:49-06:55
“Donald Trump... is actually already impinging on our rights because electing is our power.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 07:16-32:21
“We had over 9,500 businesses in all 72 counties go into empty spaces [through the Main Street Bounce Back program].”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 09:21-09:29
“We need to reinvest in things like research for Alzheimer's and our public schools.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 11:27-11:38
“The best course of action is to expand Badger Care so that any Wisconsinite can buy into that.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 15:03-15:10
“Fully funding our public schools and making sure that our public schools are the very first choice for parents.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 16:25-16:31
“We need to be thinking about our education system as starting at age zero and including childcare as a public good.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 16:36-16:45
“The shared revenue formula that we have today is really similar to what we have happening with public school funding of Frankenstein.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 17:37-17:48
“We need to go back to the drawing board and understand the different needs of rural communities and urban communities.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 18:08-18:15
“We can't be in a place where we're just turning to property taxes as the saving grace for when we need to provide services.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 18:35-18:44
“We had a Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 21:38-21:42
“I'm not in favor of a moratorium [on data centers] because honestly, I feel like that's government kicking the can down the road.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 23:21-23:29
“Owees was at the table saying, we need to protect the environment.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 23:48-23:53
“Governor Everts has done tremendous, tremendous work for the state.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 27:15-27:20
“Wisconsinites are struggling right now. People are paying a lot of money for gas.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 29:10-29:16
“$300 million for special needs education is a bundle of money and desperately needed.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 29:22-29:27
“We have an incredibly strong system with the decentralized system that we have.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 30:57-31:03
“Tom Tiffany... didn't vote to certify the 2020 elections when he was in Congress.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 31:07-31:16
“I would not turn over our voter rolls to the federal government.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 31:56-32:01
“I want to legalize [marijuana]... by looking at other states and learning lessons from what they've done.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 33:00-33:06
“Minnesota took a tact that gave tribes a head start. And I think that's something that we should look at.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 33:22-33:30
“Undermining those individuals has really done such great damage to how our communities work.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 35:14-35:23
“You're going to see that pullback from community investment [with absentee owners].”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 36:56-37:09
“Some of the companies just not investing back into the communities.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 37:15-37:20
“One thing that we can do to help with that issue is to really deeply think about succession.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 37:33-37:41
“We have an aging population, whether it's farmers or whether it's manufacturers.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 37:55-38:05
“We don't have the workforce, we don't have the housing, we don't have the childcare.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 39:38-39:43
“Economic development is always trying to look over the horizon.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 40:06-40:11
“AI is a great example of how do we help our businesses be prepared for the future.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 40:15-40:21
“Every community is dealing with a lack of both resources, financial and human.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 41:21-41:28
“We were just about to launch what's called the Solar for All program, which would have been putting solar on homes and help businesses do…”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 42:20-42:31
“All of those resources got pulled back by the Trump administration.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 42:38-42:42
“Kikkoman... have had a facility in Walworth county in Wisconsin for over 50 years.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 44:14-44:14
“The last poll had 65% of people undecided.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 45:13-45:17
“We have lots of events that are not at 2 o'clock on Thursday afternoon.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 47:17-47:33
“There's a mindset that all farmers and all farms should be treated the same and you can't pick winners and losers.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 52:13-52:21
“Small farms bring benefits in this way.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 52:46-52:50
“Big farms are important for making sure we are feeding everybody and they have their own roles.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 52:49-52:57
“How can we bring research out of UW Madison and make sure that they're using the most up to date, most highly useful and technological…”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 53:10-53:24
“A small farm might need a hub to be able to deliver their products and have everything brought together and then distributed out of there.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 53:23-53:35
“There's so much that we've already invested in our schools and our universities and our tech colleges that we can leverage.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 54:48-54:56
“We have a great slate of candidates and if everyone can get on the ballot and yeah, do we have a deep bench and that's great.”
WI Gubernatorial Candidate Missy Huges Speaks at CoCo Dems Headquarters | Uploaded May 17, 2026 | 56:00-56:06