Wisconsin governor candidate injured when plane lands in lake

María Paula Mijares Torres, Bloomberg News on Sep 13, 2026

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Representative Tom Tiffany, a Republican running for governor of Wisconsin, said he suffered minor injuries after the plane he was traveling in landed in a lake, leaving him and the pilot to swim to safety.

Tiffany, 68, was returning home from dinner with the La Crosse County Republican Party on Saturday when the plane lost power while approaching an airport in Wausau, Wisconsin, the lawmaker said in a social post early Sunday.

Tiffany said he and the pilot swam to a shallow area, where they waited for rescuers to reach them by boat. Only Tiffany and the pilot were aboard the plane and both sustained minor injuries, the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Sunday.

The congressman thanked the pilot and first responders who “got us safely off the water” and brought both of them to a hospital. “An experience like this reminds you just how precious life is,” Tiffany said on X.

Tiffany is in a tight race for governor against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, in the Nov. 3 election.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident and the plane remains submerged in the lake, the sheriff’s office said.