Hailing a crowd of press and supporters to her home in Milwaukee, Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, announced her candidacy for mayor on Tuesday morning.
Running to replace incumbent and fellow Democrat Tom Barrett — who has held the position since 2004 — Taylor claimed there is corruption in the current office, describing it as a “cancer that needs to be eradicated.” Criticizing Barretts’ lack of “urgency” to create change, she spoke about her connection to the city.
If elected, Taylor would be the first African-American woman to become mayor in Milwaukee.
"This is not my Milwaukee, and I will not sit on the sidelines and watch us expect to take this as our status quo," Taylor said during her campaign declaration, speaking to the lack of opportunity she believes minority populations face across the city.
In a 2018 study, Milwaukee was ranked the second worst city in the country for African-American people to live. Taylor spoke out against the recent infrastructural growth in primarily downtown, compared to neglected racially segregated African-American neighborhoods.
“We are more than downtown, we’re neighborhoods,” she said speaking to the drop of African-American homeownership. “And I want to put the ‘neighbor’ back in the hood.”
The candidate’s platform includes promoting effective community policing, clean drinking water and equitable regional transport.
Taylor is a graduate of UW-Milwaukee and School of Law at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She began her career as a public defender before moving into politics.
When first elected into the state Legislature in 2003, Taylor was the second African-American woman, the fifth African-American and the twentieth woman to serve in the Senate. She represents the fourth district, which covers the Village of Shorewood, Wauwatosa, Glendale and Milwaukee.
She emphasized the importance of social justice reform throughout her career, authoring legislation to support record expungement, child victims' rights and working to lift limitations on voting access. Taylor says she will maintain her senate seat throughout the election.
Barrett has not yet announced whether or not he will be running for reelection.
