I grew up in a house my dad bought for one dollar.
In 1984, my father bought a one-dollar house from the city of Milwaukee and fixed it up for my family. He was a master electrician, trained through IBEW, and I can still picture him coming home tired in a way that only a full day of honest work could make you.
My mom was the jane-of-all-trades: cooking, fixing, stretching every dollar and doing whatever needed to be done to put food on our table.
Between the two of them, I learned what it means to work hard and take pride in building something meaningful.
Both of my parents battled addiction and mental health struggles, and there were long stretches of housing instability. What I learned during this time — whether it was from watching my parents fight their disease or pushing myself to keep moving forward — is that when you get knocked down, you get back up.
That lesson never left me, and in 2020, it carried me to become the youngest and first Black person elected Milwaukee County executive in our community’s history.
After I was sworn in on my front porch during the height of the pandemic, I immediately went to work to fix a pension crisis that had saddled Milwaukee County with $760 million in debt and a property tax burden that was crushing working families.
Under my leadership, we delivered the county’s first budget surplus in more than 20 years. We cut property taxes by nearly $20 million in 2024 alone — the largest reduction Milwaukee County had seen in decades. And we kept the levy below 2023 levels going into this year.
Across the county, we’ve put cranes in the sky and workers on the ground to build up our community. This includes a new air cargo facility at Mitchell International Airport that is creating jobs at zero cost to local taxpayers, a $95 million investment in a new international terminal supporting hundreds of construction jobs, and tens of millions more in affordable housing investments across the community that are lowering costs for working families.
We built the county’s first centralized grants office that has secured more than $100 million in state and federal aid — money that went straight into our county’s priorities. And we did it by building coalitions, not picking fights. We got Wisconsin Act 12 across the finish line in 2023, a bipartisan reform of how the state shares revenue with local governments for essential services that had gone untouched for more than two decades.
That bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and business groups unlocked an estimated $2.5 billion in new revenues for communities across Wisconsin, including roughly $7 million a year in additional shared revenue.
But one of the efforts I’m most proud of is the one that speaks most directly to who I am and where I come from: our Building Bridges small business program.
I’ve watched small business owners in my community fight for years to keep their doors open. So in Milwaukee County, we built a program to help them do it by awarding $10,000 for small businesses to upgrade facilities and make repairs they couldn’t otherwise afford.
Because of the Building Bridges program, small businesses across Milwaukee County were able to fix a leaking roof, replace an old furnace and update storefronts that hadn’t seen new paint since before I was born. The program also connects entrepreneurs with local governments and community organizations to give them access to the resources they need to succeed.
Here’s my promise to you: as governor, we’re going to support small businesses by creating a statewide Building Bridges program.
We will build on that record with Badger Basics, my plan for the whole state that is built on affordability, care and opportunity — three things every Wisconsin family needs but feels out of reach for far too many.
Affordability means getting serious about housing and energy: building more housing in every corner of the state, expanding affordable homeownership, strengthening eviction prevention so a bad month doesn’t turn into a lost home, and cutting energy costs for families and renters.
Care means access to healthcare and childcare. I will expand healthcare by creating a public option for every household in this state and build a statewide mental health system so there’s no wrong door for someone who needs help.
And opportunity means what I’ve spent my career doing: good jobs, strong small businesses, and affordable housing, so every Wisconsinite has the opportunity to build a good life.
I’m running for governor because I believe Wisconsin works best when we bring people together from every corner of our state and build bridges between neighbors, businesses and government to get things done. We won’t always agree on how to get there, but I know we all want the same basic thing: a fair shot to work hard and have a good life.
That’s what my community gave me. And that’s what I intend to deliver for all Wisconsinites as your next governor.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin.
