Matt Philibert

Matt Philibert earned a high school diploma from North Fort Myers High School. Philibert earned an associate degree from Florida SouthWestern State College in 2010, a degree from Madison Area Technical College in 2012, and a bachelor's degree from Southern New Hampshire University in 2025. Philibert's career experience includes working in information technology.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a stay at home dad who has had enough with the authoritarian turn the country is taking. Watching ICE agents murder Alex Pretti in the street and then seeing the White House immediately come out to lie about it was the last straw for me. Now it seems that state's rights and state governments are more important than ever before as the Federal government and Supreme Court continue to meddle in state-level affairs and demand compliance.

I'm an only child who grew up in Florida. My dad is from New York and my mom was from Wisconsin. My parents owned a duplex with my Aunt in Wisconsin, and every summer once school was out, the three of us would drive up here and spend the summer in our half of the duplex. Summers in Wisconsin were always my favorite part of the year, and I always said I would move up here one day.

I am a political newcomer. I did not grow up with political aspirations and my family is not wealthy or well-connected. I have had a wide variety of jobs in my lifetime like massage therapist, barista, insurance agent. Many jobs were retail/service management where I got used to working with people from all walks of life. I left my most recent job when my wife (the stay at home parent at the time) got a job offer we couldn't pass up, so we switched roles and I became the stay at home parent to our four kids (ages 13, 12, 4, and 2.)

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We are in an affordability crisis. The working class is being bled dry between rising costs of living, stagnant wages, a poor job market, and predatory betting apps.

We need legislation that will ease the burden of the every day Wisconsinite by way of a $15 minimum wage and universal childcare so parents can afford to go back to work without spending their entire paycheck on daycare costs.

Many of the worst effects of the Big Beautiful Bill will happen AFTER midterms (by design) and we need a proactive plan to provide and expand healthcare options to catch those who will lose their access to health insurance.

Online gambling apps like Kalshi have become rampant and must be banned before they can create a new wave of gambling addicts.Wisconsin belongs to us, not the billionaires. The natural beauty of our state is unmatched and it is NOT for sale. We do not need any more data centers in the state, and I will fight to keep them out. The ones we already have need to be heavily regulated and must use their own closed water system, be on their own power grid, reduce noise pollution as much as possible, use solar panels to offset their consumption, and no tax breaks.

Now more than ever is a time to invest in clean, reusable energy. The illegal war in Iran has shown how much of a weakness our reliance on fossil fuels has become. We need to diversify our state's energy options to wind and solar in earnest so we can get out from under the thumb of big oil.Our Wisconsin teachers need help. They work way too hard to be given so little in return. Starting pay for a public school teacher in Wisconsin is $50k a year for a bachelor's degree and $54k a year for a master's degree. I was making nearly that much as a kitchen manager at a Kwik trip with NO degree.

How can we ask our teachers to do the monumental task of bringing up the next generation if we are going to pay them less than the manager of a gas station? We can't. Teachers deserve better. I want to propose a minimum salary for all public school teachers as well as a supply stipend so they do not need to pay for classroom supplies out of their own pocket.

I also want universal free lunch for public school students.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about economic and financial issues and doing right for the every day person in Wisconsin. I want all of us to feel in control of our own lives without living paycheck to paycheck or being one misfortunate away from bankruptcy. The working class is not a pool of money that exists to be siphoned off to the wealthy.

No hungry public school kids.

No homeless vets in Wisconsin.

No new datacenters.

No public money in private schools.