The marathon continues right here on 1-1 7-2 truth. Thank you for joining me for the second hour of the Tori Lowe show and
We got guests
We got KELDA Royce
An American attorney small business owner and Democratic politician for Madison, Wisconsin
She is a member of the Wisconsin Senate representing the Wisconsin 26th Senate district since 2021
She previously served two terms in the Wisconsin state assembly from
2009 to 2013
She is a current candidate for the Democratic Party primary for governor of Wisconsin for the
2026 election. How you doing? I'm so happy to be with you Tori. Thank you. Here we go
Here we go. You in the race. I'm in the race. I'm having a great time traveling this state now
The governor is a lot, you know, is a lot of responsibility throughout the state of Wisconsin
So I'm a you know, I'm gonna try to walk through a lot of the concerns, but what made you decide to run?
Why did you run this year? Because we need somebody who can fight Donald Trump and this Republican regime and when they're trying to hurt Wisconsinites
We need somebody who can win this election because we cannot afford to go backwards with a guy like Tom Tiffany
And we need someone who is prepared to govern on day one
And I have the most experience in the race in and around state government making change for
Almost 25 years in every kind of legislative environment not just as a legislator and a leader
But as an advocate somebody who ran a statewide
Non-profit somebody who's a small business owner
Well, you know what? It's a lot of Democratic candidates. They're sure are, you know, all friends
It's packed. What do y'all say to each other when y'all see each other?
Dude, you know, most of the time it's cordial, but now that y'all running against each other, do y'all talk to y'all?
Yeah, I mean, you know a lot of these folks, you know, I've been in politics a long time
But you know so many of these folks that have come in to politics in recent years. I have supported
I have mentored I have you know, been with them as they've run for other races and so it's nice to see each other like every time
You know, I see David Crowley. I make a b-line for him
I give him a hug because it's it's actually great to see him. That's what's up. Well, yeah
Wisconsin families are facing higher cost and groceries housing and everyday necessities
As governor, how can you ease those costs
For the citizens in Wisconsin
Well, I would say two ways number one people got to earn more money
Because it's hard to bring prices down
But if you have more money in your pocket, then you are better able to afford your life
And we can do that by raising the minimum wage dramatically
725 an hour is not livable for anyone anywhere
And restoring workers rights like collective bargaining the ability to join a union
That's really important
But we can also bring down prices on the bigger ticket items like health care
Like housing like child care and I've got detailed plans for how to do all three expanding access to housing building more
Performing our zoning making better use of of the dollars we've already spent on housing on health care
I want to open up the state employee plan that I enjoy as a state senator
To anybody let anybody buy into the state plan
It's a low-cost high-quality plan and it would save a lot of people money
Yeah, I was that was going to be my next question a hundreds of thousands of what's constantly
our risk for losing health
coverage and paying more for insurance
That's a huge issue and I think you touched on it, but uh, how can we uh
Get some safe some state safeguards up. Yeah. This is this is critical because not only are people going to lose their health insurance
But we have
providers all over the state hospitals and clinics especially in rural areas
But also urban communities like Milwaukee that are going to close when people lose insurance because they aren't going to be able to pay the bills
And so it's not just the laws of insurance for individuals. It's the loss of
access to care for whole communities
the best way that we can
Expand access to health care today. That's affordable is by having a true robust public option letting everybody buy in now
Listen, I'm a single-payer person. I think
It's crazy that we ration health care in this country based on your job or your ability to pay
Instead of the fact that you're a human being and you need to go to the doctor sometimes
But we've worked for 15 years to expand Medicaid
The federal
Budget that recently passed big ugly bill has essentially taken out off the table for us
Because it's going to cost us half a billion dollars to implement
For that amount of money we could
dramatically expand access to the good state health care plan that I enjoy that should be open to anybody to buy in
And it's low-cost high-quality insurance and it would be your option as a small business owner as an individual as big company
If you don't like those double-digit increases you're getting from your for-profit insurance
Buy into the state plan. It's your choice
There was a recent situation where Governor Evers
They wanted to look into the snap benefits where they're going. I mean
With what's going on in Minnesota with Tim Walls recently dropping out of the governor's race due to
The fraud that's going on in
Minnesota
How can you fight against that? I mean public trust is important. Yes, it is and when you talk about misuse of funds fraud
uh
A lot of people you know want to look into where the snap benefits is going because they're trying to find out a lot of fraud
The federal government is trying to look into Wisconsin and try to see what they can find with the snap benefits. How do you feel about
uh, the federal government looking into snap benefits in fraud or possibly fraud listen
I want to be absolutely clear
Anybody who steals money from the taxpayers from us the public
deserves to be prosecuted and put in prison. That is outrageous when you violate the public trust in that way
You have harmed every single American and it's unacceptable
Um, but I I start when I think about corruption. I look at the highest levels
I see a president who has stacked his cabinet with billionaires and he is weaponizing our own federal government to make himself and his family and his friends richer
they have not just uh
Change the tax code to benefit themselves make private jets tax deductible
You know give themselves sweetheart deals
But he's actually used the government to enrich his own families business holdings, right
and to me that is
Absolutely outrageous and I want to see corruption at any level stopped
But I don't think we turn a blind eye to the corruption at the top right just because um, you know, there might be some
Uh, some waste or fraud or abuse
You know by the little guys. Well, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money
A lot of people depend on those resources. They sure do
I don't know what I wouldn't marginalize the and you know, the truth is that people who receive benefits like that earned benefits
The fraud rate is very very low
Usually when people are talking about fraud what they mean is somebody made a mistake
I wanted a complicated uh forms
No, like they they made a typo or you know
They picked up an extra shift that week and then they you know, and then they reported it
And then they were disqualified from getting health care because they were over the income limit right
They were too rich making 11 grand a year or something right and so
Um, I think we got to be really careful when we talk about trying to take away people's benefits like their food or the health care that they rely on low income people
um
We should be very aggressive in prosecuting corruption and fraud especially at the scale that we're seeing by the Trump regime
Now
Where's your stance on immigration right now in the state of Wisconsin?
A lot of the farmers said that they needed a lot of the immigration
Ideas to help them farm their land and because most regular people do not want to do those jobs
Uh, but now you have a mandate from the government to kind of get involved and that's what you see in Minnesota right now with the
woman eventually, you know losing her life to trying to stand against or
Uh, kind of confronting
Mm-hmm or being involved in you know in the situation
But where do you stand on this?
Right here in the state of Wisconsin. Listen Wisconsin's top three
industries
are
Manufacturing agriculture and tourism every one of those industries is heavily dependent on immigrant labor right different kinds of labor and different parts of the state
But the reality is we don't have enough people here in the state to run our economy without immigrants
Now I don't want to have laws on the books that we can't enforce
We can have safe communities and secure borders and we should
But that is not what Donald Trump is doing
What he is doing is empowering an untrained
lawless
violent force into american communities
They are kidnapping and disappearing people. They are violating all of our ways
American citizens or some of them are American citizen many of them are people with legal permission to be here
They're spouses of US citizens green card holders permanent residents
Uh, and they're taking them without due process. They're disappearing them
And then of course yesterday we saw a woman an American citizen right a mother of a six-year-old boy who now will grow up an orphan
Because they shot his mother dead
That was murder. Let's be very very clear. She posed no threat to those
Ice agents. She was there as a legal observer
She was there like so many of us protesting the illegal and unconstitutional actions of ice
Something that she has every right to do as an american
And they shot her as she was trying to leave
I agree her tensions from my opinion wasn't to hurt anybody
But I think that as a person that have dealt with protests like and I said this early in the show
Mm-hmm
Just stay out the way with these federal agents because it's a great area. It's very dangerous
It's not we really is not a very real it as an attorney's when you walk in approach a situation
As a person that have
mitigated or told people to back up because I don't want what I saw on that video to happen
uh
These are things that we have to try to train ourselves
To not get us close or not to get involved to me
As a person that had to tell somebody to look
Relax first of all relax because I know you're I see that you're starting to get hyper
Active relax calm down
And react calmly in these type situations
Uh, I think she was just trying to get herself out of the way because they were approaching her
And I've seen that happen before and you know, and I'd just say
That was a tough situation uh for somebody to be in as far as like the the woman because
She came out that day to do something
But you also got to know how to respond when things happen
Well, listen, it's a very dangerous situation when you have
untrained vigilante forces that have been given permission by the president to act in lawless ways without any accountability to us as taxpayers
They are coming into our communities. They don't have adequate training. They're not like our local police forces
And you know even with our local police forces you have to have accountability right there
There to help keep us safe and that doesn't always happen right and I say this as the daughter of a law enforcement officer
Somebody who's spent his career in law enforcement as a prosecutor and as a law enforcement officer
We need
Public safety, but we also need to understand that when you
Pick up that badge and you put on a gun you take on a responsibility and you don't get to just shoot first and ask questions later
Well, I did with it all the time like I said Terry Williams down at the lake front
Was shot by sheriff deputy who's who wasn't
Charge with a crime and so like I said, uh, you just have to be cautious and I always tell people that that when I'm out
Don't even go near. Yeah, you don't have to get away. It's a scary situation because um, you know, they're
In many of these situations
There is not accountability for police officers who discharge their weapons and hurt or kill people
And nobody wants to be in that situation
Well, maybe you can get some justice reform in here
I'm working on it. Listen, the state of Wisconsin some better ideas when it comes to
When these type of situations take place, so what we're doing is not working right now well look when we come back
I want to ask you some more questions. I got some more questions for you also. I want to know
Specifically things about Milwaukee because we need a lot of assistance from the state
Hey, look, we got
We got a lot of different things that I want to talk about. I was just looking at this question about farming
So when we get back we have more conversation truth nation stay locked in
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101 seven the truth Tory low Tory low show we got gas gal the Roy's
She's running for a governor in the 2026 election
Look
Milwaukee got a lot of issues. I want to get to this Milwaukee. I want to get to the city because usually Milwaukee
Kind of pushes a lot of the political candidate candidates into office
Due to the fact that it's a liberal township, you know, yes democratic town
Milwaukee is very important to the state both politically and economically right and many times when we talk about our those votes
What we always say well, what do we get out of these votes of Milwaukee?
Education when it comes to education when it comes to things that
We depend on the state. We got we got a lot of taxes. We got tax this year. We got extra taxes that took place on the property taxes
NPS referendum added more taxes. It just seems like the people in Milwaukee are just continuing to be tax
What are some of the things that you have in mind to help the city of Milwaukee?
Well, I first of all want to say that I love Milwaukee and I understand that if Wisconsin is going to be strong
If we're going to have a vibrant powerful economy for the 21st century, Milwaukee's got to be strong
And we've had politics for the last couple of decades where the Republicans have
Basically spat on Milwaukee again and again
They're doing everything they can to undermine Milwaukee and to pit the rest of the state against Milwaukee
And that has got us from what point of view like as far as what like
Democrats seem like
When we talk about local government we talk. This is a democratic grand township
So I don't I can't go and say the Trump messed up the city of Milwaukee. I know I am and I won't I won't do that all of
Listen any human institution has gonna have challenges, right?
Because none of us are perfect
But I think the way that Milwaukee has been demonized for political purposes by Republicans at the state level is really cynical and it's wrong
And we've got to stand up against it and say no listen Milwaukee
Milwaukee has his problems like any other place, but Milwaukee has a lot of spirit Milwaukee has
Fighting spirit and I want Milwaukee to thrive but we get out and we vote all the time like we get out and vote
We just want to know what are the result-based concepts that we can actually
Bank on from you. What are some of your things that you want to actually
Specifically get done here. Yeah my big priorities that I think are gonna disproportionately help Milwaukee
Are raising the minimum wage and restoring collective bargaining to put more money in the pockets of workers and working families
We're gonna fully fund public education
Everything from early childhood child care to K-12 to public higher education
Milwaukee has been really disadvantaged
By the way, the Republicans have starved our public schools of funds
We are gonna open up the state health insurance and retirement plan to allow anybody to buy in that's gonna mean more vibrant small businesses opening up
And we're gonna protect your freedom. We're gonna protect Milwaukee's freedom to make its own local decisions
That's been really taken away by Republicans
Taking away local control and we're gonna try to restore that. Do you get to lower the taxes?
Yeah, I mean make sure that we can get a tax break
You know what Tory every place I go in this state every place people are talking about their property taxes and how high they are
And the reason that they're high you can point to one place and it is Republican
Legislators in Madison that have starved our schools and our local governments of the funds they need
Meanwhile, they are sitting on billions of dollars of surplus at the state level
That is not right
We are already paying our taxes to the state and the state is supposed to be putting that money back into our community
So that we have good schools and good public services and safe roads and they're not doing it
So what would you do different from governor evers like it would you
What ideas would you apply because governor evers
He said okay, I'm not running anymore. I'm not done with running the state
What would you do different as a governor then what's already been happened
Well, I think we're gonna have a very different situation in 2027
I think we're gonna have a democratic state senate for the first time in a generation
And I think the assembly is gonna be very very close and listen the governor has a lot of power
But for some things you need the legislature
But if we're gonna take advantage of this opportunity if we're gonna actually use it to fund our schools to make change
To improve access to health care for people
You got to have a governor who knows her stuff that isn't putting her finger in the wind and waiting for a poll to say what the right thing to do is to help people
A governor who is willing to use political power
Really wield political power to get things done to make life better for families
And then many times when I talk about the state ideas
With the governor many times they have to you know deal with the
What's going on with the Republicans and the governor how much power does the governor have?
You know because I think that many times when we look at governor evers and we talk about
He's he's managing a surplus many times. So how much of that money can be given to
Programs in the city of Milwaukee that can be used as resources for people in the underserved community
People that are having evictions ideas that are harming them from you know
Being in the livable space
You know
rental ideas where you know a lot of the residents are renters. They're not homeowners, right?
So the landlords have a lot of power here in Wisconsin. So
How can we improve some of these ideas when it comes to homelessness evictions things like that like people
Many times wonder what can the state do to affect some of the things that are happening on the ground and
Middle class as well middle class is starting to shrink housing is expensive for everybody and housing is
It's probably the biggest pain point for for most families these days
Just because of cost of resin so much faster than people's incomes
So there's a lot of the state can do the governor in Wisconsin is pretty powerful and has the ability to put out federal funds
And I think governor Ebers has done a good job of distributing those like coven area area relief funds
Getting them out to communities and people in need businesses in need
But to distribute state money you need the permission of the legislature
And I've served on the joint finance committee, which is responsible for the state budget
So I know where the money is I know where it's not going and where it should be going
Housing is a huge priority for me for 13 years. I've been a successful small business owner
My business helps make it more affordable for people to buy and sell homes
And we need everybody to be able to afford a safe place to live
We need to build more housing at the state level
Of course, we're fighting against the rising cost of building housing because of the Trump tariffs
And the way that his immigration rates have heard our labor force making it a lot more expensive to build
But there's a lot we can do at the state level to ensure more housing stock. So what can the Democrats do better
When you if you get in office, what can the Democrats do better to help serve the community?
I think Democrats need to stop being scared of our own shadow
I think Democrats just need to have the courage of our convictions
You know if if you believe that health care is right and people have access need to have access to health care
And our school should be funded then by God use your political power to do it
Talk about it every day everywhere you go fight for your your values
I think you know people agree with Democrats on policies if you just ask him
You know should abortion be a crime or should it be legal should marijuana be criminalized?
Would you seek a lot of marijuana of course tax it regulated
You know, let's let adults make their own decisions and let's make sure that this state has the revenue we need
If you ask people they agree with Democrats on policies, but people don't like to see politicians
Get power and then make excuses as to why they can't do things like using Donald Trump as an excuse
Well, I mean, you know, there are some things we can't do without the presidency
But what I'm saying is when we talk about the Milwaukee when we talk about
The amount of votes that they depend on to come out the city to affect these governor elections
I think a lot of people with scratched their head and wonder
What are they getting out of their votes? What are they getting in return because every time we get
Into these races we come out of Milwaukee is definitely
Pushed a lot of people into office, but what I'm saying is
We have to have a written plan something that we can say you spent your four years doing this and we got something out of it
Yes, and many times we don't have that something out of it conversation
That's right
And it can be hard when there's divided government right to get all your priorities done
But that's why we need a governor with really strong leadership and really strong principles and a willingness to fight
The courage and the competence to get things done and who knows what she wants to do go on my website
KELDA Roy's doctor
Check out my plan. I've got the the receipts here. I've got the plan
I know what I want to do and listen
I'm not going to promise that I can get everything done that I want to that's not how the world works
I'm not a dictator
I'm not going to break the law like Donald Trump
But I I can promise you that I will wake up every day and do everything in my power to make life better for you to raise your wages
To lower the costs on the big ticket items like housing and health care and childcare and to guarantee your freedom
Well, thank you for coming through KELDA because once again
As you further yourself into the campaign
Make sure you swing back through to let us know what's going on and and how it's going
But you know because I'm sure other candidates are going to swing through the show, but once again
We are going to make sure we keep an eye on you and I've got maybe you know as we progress into
the race when you come back
We may have to get tougher on you, you know, good. Listen. I'm ready. You've at me. You're you
I'm here to speak the truth and I appreciate it Tori. Well, thank you so much. And like I said
Stop back through you know, if you get into the big race
You got to stop back through but I appreciate you for coming through and letting the people know how you
Feel of moving forward how you feel that you're going to move forward and what you can offer the people and once again
This may not be our last conversation. Good to be with you. Thanks. God bless you. Hey, look when we come back true for nation
We have more conversations stay locked in