“governing for every family, every school, and every student, not just the ones your coalition finds convenient”
Last Tuesday, Wisconsin elected David Crowley as its next governor. He will be the first millennial and the first Black governor in our state’s history, and the first Governor from the city of Milwaukee proper in over 40 years.
That history is personal for many of us – myself included. David grew up in 53206, about 30 blocks down Burleigh from me. Days before the election, my mother asked incredulously, “Can David really win this?” For many of us, Wisconsin electing a Black man from our community to lead the state seemed unfathomable.
Representation matters, and as a son of the North Side and the parent of two Black girls, there is real power in seeing myself – in seeing them see themselves – in our political leadership. Tens of thousands of Milwaukee students who share our lived experiences just watched one of our own win the state’s highest office.
As Dr. Howard Fuller aptly put it, “Like any Black person with even a modicum of understanding…this is clearly a historic moment in Wisconsin.” In that light, I extend CFC’s congratulations to David, and to every candidate who earned the chance to serve this week.
A call to govern for every family, and every school
Governor-elect Crowley said it himself after his primary win: “My job is not to become the first, and if I do become the first, my job is to make sure I’m not the last.” We make sure he isn’t the last by ensuring the kids behind him – including nearly 50,000 publicly funded students on Milwaukee’s North Side – get the education they deserve.
Right now, far too many don’t.
In March, I laid out how Wisconsin Democrats have lost the electorate’s trust on K12 schools. And over the spring, I outlined CFC’s common-sense, cross-partisan agenda for addressing our state’s educational malaise:
