Trump Will Campaign in Wisconsin With Brett Favre, Who’s Linked to a Mississippi Welfare Scandal

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS / AP
October 30, 2024 8:26 AM EDT

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will crisscross several swing states on Wednesday, passing each other in Wisconsin, where the former president is scheduled to appear in Green Bay with a onetime local icon, retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

A longtime supporter of Trump and other Republicans, Favre spent most of his career with the Green Bay Packers, winning the NFL's Most Valuable Player award three times and a Super Bowl. But the Pro Football Hall of Famer has been in the news lately for a welfare scandal in his home state of Mississippi.

Favre, 55, is not facing any criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen people or groups being sued as the state tries to recover misspent money. Favre has repaid just over $1 million he received in speaking fees funded by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. Mississippi Auditor Shad White, a Republican, has said Favre never showed up for the speaking engagements. White also said Favre still owes nearly $730,000 in interest.

Favre has posted and reposted social media messages supporting Trump and criticizing Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“In all the elections I've seen over my lifetime, I've never seen one where there was so much hate,” Favre posted Monday on X. “It's certainly sad to see.”

With six days until Election Day, Harris will travel from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Wisconsin's capital, Madison, and then back south to Raleigh, North Carolina. Trump will be moving in the opposite direction, heading to Green Bay after an event in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

The focus on Wisconsin is no surprise. The Badger State is a perennial presidential battleground, often decided by only a few thousand votes. Trump won it in 2016 by 23,000 votes and lost it in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden by 20,000 votes.

In relying on Favre, Trump is tapping into the state's deep and loyal support for the Packers and the team's onetime star quarterback. But Favre also comes with increased baggage after becoming enmeshed in Mississippi's welfare spending scandal.

Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to waste tens of millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019, according to White and state and federal prosecutors.

A nonprofit group called the Mississippi Community Education Center made two payments of welfare money to Favre Enterprises, the athlete’s business: $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018. The TANF money was to go toward a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter started playing on the volleyball team in 2017.

The Mississippi Community Education Center director, Nancy New, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to charges of misspending welfare money, as did her son Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify against others.

Favre appeared in September before a Republican-led congressional committee that was examining how states are falling short on using welfare to help families in need. U.S. House Republicans have said a Mississippi welfare misspending scandal involving Favre and others points to the need for “serious reform” in the TANF program.

Favre told the congressional committee that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January.