A Democratic candidate delivered a political earthquake in a Milwaukee suburb, winning the mayoral race in a longtime Republican stronghold.
Alicia Halvensleben narrowly won the election in Waukesha with more than 51 percent of the vote, or just under 500 votes, to Republican state Rep. Scott Allen’s just under 49 percent.
While mayoral races don’t typically rise to the national level and the election was technically nonpartisan, the win by the city’s Common Council president against a GOP state lawmaker has wider implications heading into the midterms. Waukesha County is known for being reliably conservative.
It’s the latest in a series of mayoral races where Democratic candidates have picked up a win since Donald Trump returned to office.
One-time Republican Mayor Shawn Reilly, who later became an Independent in 2021 and endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, was not seeking a fourth term, leading to the first open mayoral race in the city in 20 years.
Halvensleben’s victory against one of the most conservative legislators shows the shifting electorate as Democrats gear up for a series of competitive races in Wisconsin this fall and look to make headway in more conservative parts of the deep purple state.
While Waukesha County has been a Republican stronghold for years, it’s become more politically diverse in the past decade. Trump won it by 27 points in 2016, but his margin shrank to 20 points in 2024. The city is less conservative than the county, but Trump still carried the city by six points in 2024.
Waukesha is represented by Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, and it’s considered a reliable GOP seat, but even small shifts are bolstering confidence among Democrats who have their sights on several other more competitive statewide races in November, including the gubernatorial election.
The win for a Democrat in the mayoral race comes as the liberal candidate for the Supreme Court, Chris Taylor, won the statewide Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
The Wisconsin Appeals Court Judge and former Democratic lawmaker’s victory against conservative Maria Lazar, an appeals court judge who once worked for former GOP Governor Scott Walker, further widens liberals’ majority on the court 5-to-2.
Statewide Taylor won the race by a whopping 20 points. She also showed Democrats are cutting down on margins even in Republican strongholds. Lazar held Waukesha County by just eight points.
Halvensleben is the latest Democrat in a series to win mayoral races across the country in the Trump-era. Last month, a Democrat won the mayor’s race in Boca Raton, Florida fir the first time in 30 years.
