Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has secured the Democratic nomination for Governor of Wisconsin, emerging victorious in a tight primary contest against state Representative Francesca Hong.
Crowley’s win sets up a high-stakes general election matchup against Republican U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany in November. If elected, Crowley will make history as Wisconsin’s first Black governor.
After briefly suspending his campaign in early July, Crowley re-entered the contest ten days later backed by the endorsement of outgoing Democratic Governor Tony Evers. Centering his campaign on economic growth, housing affordability, and working-class opportunity, Crowley built a coalition of urban, suburban, and moderate voters that propelled him to victory in the closely watched battleground state.
Crowley’s leadership philosophy is heavily shaped by his upbringing in Milwaukee, where he experienced childhood poverty, family struggles with addiction, and multiple housing evictions. These early challenges inspired him to get involved in local community organizing through youth organizations like Urban Underground, sparking a lifelong career devoted to public advocacy.
He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2016 at age 30, where he served as Chair of the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus while championing criminal justice reform, housing access, and community investment.
In 2020, Crowley made history as the youngest person and first Black official elected as Milwaukee County Executive, overseeing a $1.4 billion budget serving one-sixth of Wisconsin’s population.
During his tenure, he established a pragmatic, results-oriented track record by spearheading the passage of Wisconsin Act 12, a landmark bipartisan law that reformed state-local revenue sharing for the first time in over two decades to fund emergency services, transit, and infrastructure.
He also invested tens of millions of dollars into affordable housing initiatives. He established Eviction Free MKE, keeping Milwaukee County’s per-capita rate of unsheltered homelessness among the lowest in the nation. Additionally, Crowley directed more than $25 million in opioid settlement funds back into the community to expand treatment and addiction prevention programs.
With the primary concluded, Crowley is turning his attention toward rallying a united coalition statewide. Facing conservative Congressman Tom Tiffany in the general election, Crowley is pitching a platform aimed at bridging political divides and focusing on core economic issues for families across urban, suburban, and rural Wisconsin.
