In 2022, there were nine candidates in the Lt. Governor race. After traveling 100,000 miles across Wisconsin over the last 3.5 years championing county parties, conservative candidates, and constitutional amendments, Will Martin has entered the 2026 Republican primary race for lieutenant governor.
We’ve seen him at various GOP events. We consider Martin to be an interesting and thoughtful person.
“Dodge and Jefferson County leaders felt so strongly about my candidacy, they organized a campaign launch event in Columbus to demonstrate my appeal in rural as well as urban Wisconsin. Thompson and Walker Administration officials and friends from other walks of life are helping follow up the announcement with a fundraiser at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee on Tuesday,” he wrote us.
“Jesse Garza of Majority Strategies (formerly Rep. Sean Duffy’s staff) and Matt Walker of Walker Media Agency are helping lead up the team. In addition to a strong ground game here, we have already met with the Republican Lt. Governors Association and alerted my own contact in the White House. As requested, I am forwarding some facts about me that most do not know.” (Lancaster Mayor David Varnam, former Green Beret Nick Polce, substitute teacher John Totz, and and student Cyril Sablich are also running. On the left, Sarah Godlewski, who is far left, is running as a Democrat.)
Here are 11 facts you may not know about Will Martin.
1. My birthday is Juneteenth (June 19), which commemorates the day 160 years ago when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were freed.
2. I was born in rural America, in Tennessee, just miles from the Smoky Mountains.
3. I spent my 11th grade in high school as an exchange student in Israel.
4. My car and I have traveled so many miles (100,000) across Wisconsin that the catalytic converter actually melted down. (The car and I are just fine and ready to hit the road all the way to nomination and November!)
5. I have a radio show as the only conversative on Wisconsin’s only Black-owned talk radio station, WNOV. Guests have included: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson; U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, Tom Tiffany, and Wesley Hunt; Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann; and State Senator Cory Tomczyk.
6. I helped lead implementation of Gov. Thompson’s historic welfare-to-work initiatives, helping thousands of parents enter the workforce while saving Wisconsinites millions of dollars.
7. I advised the British, Dutch, and Israeli governments on how they could implement Wisconsin reforms in their own countries.
8. I led the effort to finalize 120 federally designated Opportunity Zones during President Trump’s first term to incentivize revitalization of economically distressed areas in rural and urban Wisconsin
9. I helped spearhead the effort to adopt two constitutional amendments to increase election integrity, including ensuring only citizens can vote in Wisconsin elections and all must provide photo identification to prove who they are.
10. My mother ran for Mayor of my hometown the same year I originally ran for Lt. Governor. While I lost in 2022, my mother won her race, making her the first woman ever to become that community’s chief local executive officer in its history. She is currently in her second term.
11. I live in a home originally built just 7 years after Wisconsin statehood. Early in the Civil War, it was home to nuns.
(Note: We explored Martin’s donation history here.)
Watch an interview he gave WISN 1130’s Dan O’Donnell here.
