Madison City Council President Sabrina Madison announced Sunday she would not seek reelection to her aldermanic district, and she plans to leave Madison when her term ends in April.
She also said she would not run for mayor of Madison as some had expected.
“I’m not running for reelection to the Madison Common Council, and I’m definitely not running for mayor,” Madison said to a small group gathered at the DoubleTree hotel on East Washington Avenue. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation about that, so I wanted people to hear it directly from me. Plus, I want to give folks in the district an opportunity to run for my seat.”
She said that over the last year, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my life and what I want it to look like, what I want to make room for,” noting that she wanted to prioritize more time for travel, photography, writing and spending time with her grandmother, who has dementia.
Madison is working on a book, and said she plans to go back to school and study journalism.
“I also want to share that I accepted an opportunity outside of Wisconsin that would require me to be available for that opportunity in August,” she said, but declined to give further details.
Madison has represented District 17 since 2022 and was elected president of the Madison City Council in April by a unanimous vote of fellow council members. She was a persistent advocate for the new Imagination Center Library, which opened in Reindahl Park in September.
Madison also helped secure funding for the Madison Public Market, which opened in July, and has championed Sandberg Elementary, bringing resources and support to the school in her district.
“These are the kinds of things that matter to me, not just the announcements, not just the ribbon cuttings, but the work it takes to make something happen, and the people who benefit when it does,” Madison said.
In addition to her role as alder, Madison has influenced the community in other ways. She is the founder and CEO of the Progress Center for Black Women, a co-working space and nonprofit that supports Black women entrepreneurs and business leaders. She also created the Black Women’s Leadership Conference and the Black Business Expo, among other endeavors.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve District 17 in the city of Madison,” she said during her announcement, “but I also want to be honest about more of my experience in public service. Every year, while I’ve experienced plenty of successes, I’ve also been the target of coordinated harassment, attempts to bully me, and outright false narratives.
“I also want to say something about leadership a bit more broadly. We all got to get better at speaking up and speaking out when we know people who are holding positions of influence are actually causing real harm,” Madison said. “We cannot continue to confuse popularity with leadership, social media engagement with community building, or the ability to rally people around a false narrative with the ability to lead responsibly.
“When you knowingly spread false information about an elected official, you can put that person’s safety at risk,” she said. “It has put my life at risk at times.”
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who is serving her second four-year team, pointed to similar themes when she announced on Oct. 23 that she would not pursue a third term, saying that the price of public service has become too high, pointing to a “toxic political culture” that has threatened her family’s safety and mental health.
Even though Madison is leaving the city, she said, “I also want people to understand that leaving Madison doesn’t mean that I don’t care about Madison or care about y’all. It also doesn’t erase these relationships I built with all y’all.”
