Tom Tiffany is a congressman and the Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin. Last December, he used his platform to point an online crowd at a local school board member in Eau Claire.
Her name is Stephanie Farrar. She's now president of the Eau Claire school board and teaches American literature at UW–Eau Claire. She told Civic Media what happened next.
What Tiffany posted
Libs of TikTok is a right-wing social media account. In December, it posted that Farrar was trying to start a Black Parent Teacher Association in Eau Claire.
Tiffany reposted it to his own followers, with this:
"Parents want a good education for their kids regardless of skin color. It is pure insanity that a school board member thinks otherwise. While the Left seeks to divide us by race, I will unite us as one Wisconsin. As governor, I will end unfair race-based preferences and DEI statewide."
What happened to her
After Tiffany's post, Farrar said, people online called her a segregationist, and she got misogynistic messages. There were no direct threats against her safety, she said, but police kept watch on her home for a while.
"In the current climate, I could not feel confident that online chatter would not cross the line into physical confrontation or violence," Farrar said.
Her view of what Tiffany did: "A sitting member of Congress and Republican candidate for governor of the state of Wisconsin attempted to incite an online mob against a school board member for sharing information that a parent group was seeking all members who wanted to help Black students succeed in our schools."
What she was actually doing
Farrar says the Black PTA is open to any parent who wants to work on closing gaps between Black and white students.
Farrar says those gaps are bigger in Wisconsin than anywhere else. "Wisconsin has the largest gap between white and Black student outcomes in the nation," Farrar said. "And this has long been a problem. And as a school board member, it is my job to support the success of every single student that walks through the door."
Tiffany called it "pure insanity" and turned it into a campaign line about DEI.
"Pretending that racial inequality doesn't exist will not move us towards solving racial inequality," Farrar said.
A man who wants to run the state
Tiffany is asking voters to make him governor. Farrar thinks how he used the power he already has should worry people. "People should know that this is a person who is not responsible for the influence he already has," she said.
His campaign didn't respond to Civic Media's request for comment.
Tiffany has a habit of avoiding scrutiny himself. His campaign barred two Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters from an event two days after he said he believes in "an open, free press." And he turned down the debate Wisconsin broadcasters have held since 1990.
What we know
Last December, Tom Tiffany reposted a Libs of TikTok post about an Eau Claire school board member who was helping start a Black parents' group, and called her idea "pure insanity." Afterward, she says, she was called a segregationist online, got misogynistic messages, and had police watching her home for a time. She is a local school board member. He is a congressman running for governor. His campaign didn't respond to questions about it.
