>> By the numbers, Democratic governor elect David Crowley beat Republican Tom Tiffany by 8.2 points.

That's the largest winning margin since 1998, when four term Republican Governor Tommy Thompson won by 21 points.

Here to talk about this year's election, the Republican rout.

And what's next is Tommy Thompson.

And governor, thanks very much for being here.

>> Well, thank you, Frederica, and it's always a pleasure to be on your program.

And it's always a pleasure for me to get a chance to see you again.

>> What was it like for you to see Republicans go down in such spectacular fashion?

>> It hurts.

You know, I've been a Republican my whole life.

I liken it to 1970, when I was a at that time, a sophomore Republican legislator from Elroy, Wisconsin.

And we went down from 58 to 36 in the Assembly.

It was a smashing defeat.

And it had shades of that.

When I was looking at the election on on Tuesday night, the third.

It just you know, it just hurts when your party gets decimated like the Republican Party is, was a complete rejection across the country.

>> And.

>> No state really was saved by it.

It was a Democrat purple wave.

And I keep telling people, Wisconsin is a Democratic state.

And the sooner or later people are going to come to the realization.

That's correct.

>> So you say that about Wisconsin being a Democratic state, and yet the notion of it being purple was just propped up by maps.

And arguably, you know what Senator Baldwin put it as Republicans enabling Donald Trump.

>> That that is not true.

I mean, the maps have been changed.

There's no question about it.

And now they are.

And it's a Democrat state and it's a blue state.

And and Madison is growing.

Dane County is growing.

And those are Democratic voters.

So for the for the foreseeable future, until the Republican Party reorganize and recognizes that they need like what I did when back when I ran for governor.

Get into Dane County.

Madison, the universities, Milwaukee and start building up a Republican flavor of Republican Party in those areas.

We're going to continue to lose the only solution for Republicans is to reach out and start realizing that they've got to have a better message, and they got to go in and talk to Democrat voters.

>> What's that message?

>> That message is, is less government, more decision making by the individuals, less taxes.

But at the same time, taking care of people, coming up with initiatives to build housing for the homeless, be able to come up with initiatives to make sure that everybody, like I did with BadgerCare.

You know, the Democrats now take credit for it, but it was me that started BadgerCare, and all the Democrats were opposed to it.

All of those kind of issues that people want.

You got to come up with a Republican initiative in those areas.

If you ever are going to come back and be the majority party.

>> Do you continue to support President Trump, even given what just happened?

>> President Trump was not helpful in this election.

And the people certainly repudiated President Trump.

His popularity is at 31% across the country.

That's it.

That tells me that that is a rejection.

And the Republican Party has allowed Donald Trump, the president, to be able to make all the decisions as to what direction Maga is going.

That's not right.

The House, the Senate and state legislatures, state governors have got to get in if they want to change this party and become a majority party again, they got to start taking some control and start making their own decisions.

And not just let's the president of the United States make the decisions.

That's the issue.

>> Didn't any Maga alignment on your part go against kind of your more pragmatic approach to working across the aisle?

>> Yes.

You know, I always have told people this, Democrats and Republicans alike, and I'll tell the same thing to the current Democrat governor, David Crowley.

You run as a Democrat and you come up with Democrat ideas in the campaign, and you run as a Republican.

But once you get elected, then you should become the governing party.

You should become Democrats for governing, Republicans for governing.

Join together and come up with great ideas.

The truth of the matter is Frederica is Democrats have got some good ideas.

Not many, but they've got a lot of ideas that are good.

Republicans have a lot of ideas that are good.

Wouldn't it be a better society if we came together and meld those ideas and really come up with great initiatives to solve the homeless problem, to solve economic development, to solve the health care problem?

>> What about at the state level with Democratic trifecta governor in both houses?

Do you see David Crowley and the other new majority leaders moving quickly to undo all of the Republican policy?

>> Absolutely.

They're going to move with warp speed.

And I think that's wrong.

But that's what they're going to do.

You know, when you win, you want to be able to say, I won.

And this is elections have consequences.

As the old saying goes.

And it does.

Elections have consequences.

All of these issues, some of my favorite issues are going to go by the wayside.

And I'm sorry about that, because there are good issues and good.

It's done a good job, but that's.

But that's politics.

You got to recognize it.

All I'm telling is David, the new governor, to be able to be cautious and start reaching out to the Republicans and bring them in.

He will be a stronger governor and a better governor if he does that, if he is able to come and become more bipartisan, instead of saying, now I'm just going to smash the Republicans because we won.

I think that's the wrong attitude.

And I'm hopeful he's going to be more of a bipartisan, more centrist governor.

I don't think he's going to be.

But I hope he is.

And I'm going to caution him and advise him if he ever talks to me.

>> All right.

Governor Tommy Thompson, thanks very much.

>> Rubi for more on this and other issues facing