Wisconsin governor candidate says her campaign has far less money than she thought

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez said Monday that she discovered her campaign has hundreds of thousands dollars less cash than she thought after campaign ads slated to run last week did not air because of unpaid invoices.

Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor, announced late Sunday night that she had fired her campaign manager just a month before the Aug. 11 primary after discovering contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, leading to her campaign having far less money than she thought.

Rodriguez, at a news conference surrounded by supporters, vowed to remain in the race while calling the issue a “bump in the road.”

“This campaign is going to move forward,” she said in the appearance at her campaign headquarters.

Rodriguez is in a competitive primary for Wisconsin’s open governor’s race against democratic socialist Francesca Hong; former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes; state Sen. Kelda Roys and Joel Brennan, a former top aide to Gov. Tony Evers. Evers has not endorsed anyone in the primary.

The winner of the primary will advance to the general election against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only token primary opposition.

Barnes’ campaign manager Darby O’Connor said a mistake like this is “unheard of in professional politics” and said “a campaign this poorly mismanaged stands no chance against Tom Tiffany this fall.”

Hong said in a statement that she was focused on her campaign, but “it’s vital that everyone running for this position is creating a standard of trust, honesty and accountability.”

Brennan called the errors by Rodriguez’s campaign “disqualifying.”

Roys spokesperson Jalen Knuteson said the issue contributed to a pattern showing that “Rodriguez is unprepared for the rigors of a general election or governing.”

Last week Rodriguez announced a $1 million television ad campaign buy. But when the ads didn’t start running as expected, she said she began asking questions and discovered the problems in the campaign reports.

“I am hurt, angry and deeply disappointed by someone I trusted to run my campaign,” Rodriguez said of her fired campaign manager, Kara Spencer. “I was continually getting inaccurate reports from my campaign manager.”

Spencer did not return a message seeking comment.

Rodriguez’s next report covering money raised and spent over the first six months of the year is due on Wednesday.

Rodriguez said her campaign immediately notified the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on Monday and was working with them to correct the report filed in January that covers donations and expenditures made last year.

The $618,000 she reported raising in 2025 was the second highest of any Democratic candidate, behind only Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley who brought in about $800,000. Crowley dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Rodriguez after she announced a $1 million campaign TV ad buy.

Another former Democratic candidate, former state economic development director Missy Hughes, endorsed Rodriguez after she ended her campaign last month.

Rodriguez said the ads that were supposed to start last week would begin airing next week. She would not say exactly how much her filing was off by because the work to reconcile the books was ongoing. But she said her campaign had raised about $1 million and had about $200,000 cash on hand.

Rodriguez said she was being up front about what happened.

“If I were trying to hide something I would be here today telling you about it,” she said at the news conference. “Most people are not going to stand in front of this many cameras and microphones to talk about fixing an error.”