Evers, Bucks launch campaign aimed at preventing domestic violence across Wisconsin

New at 8, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and did you know that the most dangerous place for a woman is inside of her own home? According to the United Nations, 140 women around the world die at the hands of a partner or a family member each and every day. In 2024, Wisconsin saw a record number of domestic violence deaths. 99 were recorded that year. And to help improve some of these staggering numbers, the Real Love is Respect campaign was launched this month by the Governor Evers administration. And here to talk more about this campaign is Governor Tony Evers. Good morning to you, Governor. Good morning. How are you today? I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Thank you very much for joining us. So I wanted to ask you, obviously, in a couple of weeks, we have a pretty big election here for your replacement, your last day in office, January 4th of 2027. you're coming up on the end of your term here governor what made you want to tackle this as one of your last measures as the leader of our state yeah well it's one of these issues that it's really important to stay in wisconsin it's around domestic violence and uh you know i know we're all celebrating the buck or the brewers wins last uh last several days and i have also but uh we we also have uh some issues around domestic violence in the state and so we're uh we're making sure that we move the needle there because we, as compared to other states, I mean, we have in the last year, we actually had 82 murders in the state of Wisconsin that were as a result of domestic violence. And if you compare that to two of our neighbors, they're both in the 20s, both Iowa and Minnesota. Obviously, one is too many. But when we're that significantly different than other states, I think I think we have to kind of take a take a deep breath and try to figure out. And so we've been working with all sorts of people across the state and the Bucks, Milwaukee Bucks, have decided to give us give us some real help. Absolutely. So I wanted to talk to you about the website that has been launched for this campaign, Governor. It's realloveisrespect.wi.gov. On the website here, it talks about some of the risk factors. As you just mentioned there, this is a multi-pronged issue here. Can you fill our viewers in here on some of the different elements that go into making this such a serious problem in Wisconsin? Yeah, and one of the reasons we think that it's a problem, So, obviously, just the numbers are significant. It's horrific in my – you know, it's hard to talk about something like this after the Brewers last night, but, you know, everybody's happy, but we do have an issue in our state. And the Milwaukee Bucks have reached out to us. They're going to be helpful in a campaign across the state of Wisconsin with video and TV ads that will really help people understand the length of the issue. I spent some time with folks this last week that really are concerned about this, and they're in. We're going to have a good group of people that are working on this going forward. Absolutely, and you mentioned the Bucks there. That is an excellent partnership, an excellent way to raise awareness, You know, meeting people where they are, which is Bucks games this time of year, their game at their game next Friday. We should mention they are sort of dedicating that game to the domestic violence cause and prevention. And so that is something that they will be talking about at that game and providing more information on resources. Also wanted to ask you as well, Governor, I understand that on this website that you have launched here, it's got some resources that are available to folks. Can you talk about what some of those are for people at home who may be dealing with this themselves or somebody they know or love is dealing with it? Yeah, and that's one of the issues. Almost every town of any size across the state of Wisconsin has some group of people that are working on this issue. And we have to get the word out. I mean, I visit with the people that are hosting events and not only hosting events, but taking in people overnight or for several days to keep them safe. And those people are available almost all across our state and mostly in larger cities, but in some of our rural areas, too. And so we want to make sure that people know where they where they can get this help and and where where this help is so that we can make sure that, you know, we want to reduce it. But we also want people to be safe. For sure. And again, the website is real love is respect dot w i dot gov. Governor, before I let you go here, I know you alluded to this a couple of times in our interview. I have to ask you, as the governor of Wisconsin, kind of nearing the end of your term here, what was it like for you last night to see this entire state celebrating the Brewers as they're making a World Series run for the first time in more than 40 years now? It was amazing, and I've been around long enough. I can remember the 1957 series where Lou Burdette won three games out of seven as a pitcher. So I've been following the brewers and the Milwaukee Braves before that. And this is a big one. We're going to take it all. And I know it's the Milwaukee Brewers, but they are Wisconsin brewers, too. People all across the state love them. You are so right. All right. Well, you heard it right there from the governor. We are going to take it all. Governor Tony Evers, thank you so much again for joining us live to talk about this really important topic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.