Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez ended her campaign for Wisconsin governor Friday, five days after firing her campaign manager over mismanagement of financial reporting and two days after filing campaign finance reports full of apparent errors, and 24 hours after Madison365 reported a $570,000 discrepancy between her two most recent campaign finance reports.
“As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear that there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction, not just for this campaign, but for the primary and for Wisconsin,” she said in a video posted on X.
Today I’m suspending my campaign. Thank you to everyone who believed and showed up for this campaign. Let’s keep fighting – together – to protect the Wisconsin we love. pic.twitter.com/177LrrLD56
— Sara Rodriguez (@saraforwi) July 17, 2026
“I got into this race because I wanted what was best for Wisconsin, and that hasn’t changed. And because I believe that I cannot, in good conscience, allow these questions to become a cloud over an election that Democrats need to win,” Rodriguez said.
Recent polls showed Rodriguez in third place in the primary, behind Francesca Hong and Mandela Barnes. In recent weeks, both former WEDC CEO Missy Hughes and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley dropped out of the race and endorsed Rodriguez.
