Cavalier Johnson becomes Milwaukee’s first elected Black mayor

Voters overwhelmingly supported acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson to be the next mayor of Milwaukee. In a historic election, Johnson, who has served as acting mayor since December, became the city’s first elected Black mayor.

Johnson bested former Alder Bob Donovan, garnering 67.53 percent of the vote to Donovan’s 32.47 percent as of 8:55 p.m., according to preliminary results from the Office of the Milwaukee County Clerk.

In front of a crowd of supporters at 9:30 p.m., Johnson hearkened his primary victory speech, saying the city needed a new vision — one he said his campaign worked to provide.

“I said we needed to stand up for one another, and now, today, tonight, this city for the first time in our 176-year history has elected its first Black mayor. We did it!” Johnson said amid cheers at his victory party at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

After listing a myriad of priorities from safety to the economy to education, Johnson thanked the people who “paved” his way to victory.

“I’m talking about the trailblazers, trailblazers in Milwaukee’s African American community — elected and not elected — who walked the long trek so that I could both run, as well as win,” he said. “I stand on the shoulders of giants in this community.”

“Tonight, we’re celebrating. Tomorrow we continue the hard work of governing,” Johnson concluded Tuesday night.

Donovan conceded the election at 8:45 p.m., saying he was proud of the campaign that he ran.

“There’s never, never any shame in wanting something badly and going after it and coming up short,” he said. “Where the shame really lies is with those individuals who want something badly but can never, ever seem to summon the courage to go after it.”

Johnson will serve as mayor for the next two years. He took the role of acting mayor when former Mayor Tom Barrett left the role he’d been in since 2004 to serve as a U.S. ambassador in Luxembourg.

During his time in the city’s top spot, Johnson has stressed public safety as a top issue. Shortly before being sworn in, Johnson announced a plan to combat reckless driving. In a mayoral debate last month, he said he did not want to see the city’s police budget cut.

Johnson has also focused on issues ranging from Milwaukee’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to lead pipe replacement and affordable housing.

Those priorities made Faith Givings cast her ballot for Johnson.

“I think he’s got some definite growing to do, but the fact that he appears to be a person who not only listens, but is capable of critical thinking, that’s better than a sharp poke in the eye,” said Givings. “We need the sort of person who understands that there are lots of things that contribute to crime in our neighborhoods.”

Voters take to the polls to elect city’s first new mayor since 2004

Despite expected low turnout because the race didn’t coincide with a presidential primary or other significant statewide races, voters were ready to get out and cast their ballots.

Erica Veto, who voted at the OASIS senior center on Milwaukee’s south side, was excited to be among those voting in a historic election.

“I’m very excited for Cavalier Johnson, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to have, I believe, our first Black mayor in Milwaukee,” Veto said.

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Low turnout was a major concern for Terri Rose, who also voted at OASIS. She said she was shocked to hear she was only the 88th voter at the site when she arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

“The mayor is responsible for so much of our lives in the city — where the money goes, what’s happening,” she said. “To me, it’s very important, which is why I was so shocked by the low turnout.”

Voters struggle with new polling places

The Legislature redrew local ward lines this year after the 2020 Census, meaning many voters had new polling places. For some voters, like Givings, that means traveling farther to cast a ballot.

Givings said she’s lived in the same neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side for 38 years, and always voted within two blocks of the Villard Square branch of the Milwaukee Public Library, which hosted a polling place again this year. But Givings was relocated to voting booths at the McGovern Park Senior Center.

“Redistricting has sent me to a spot where I would have to take at least two buses,” she said. “If I wanted to get there a little faster, I’d have to change buses twice, so take three buses to get to a spot where our Republican legislators have decided is in their best interest for me to schlep.”

Many voters in Milwaukee and around the state similarly found that they couldn’t vote where they had expected to. A poll worker at Villard Square said that in the February primary, 84 people cast their ballots at the library while 120 had to be sent to their new polling location. On Tuesday, he said the split was about half voters in the right place and half voters whose polling place had moved.

Another voter, Andrew Wilson, said he had to ask one of his children to drive him to his new voting location while he used to just walk around the corner.

“I’ve been voting at the same place, God, it’d be 20 years or so, and now that I’m almost 70, they moved me six blocks away,” he said. “Twenty years ago it wouldn’t have mattered, you know, but now I can’t hardly walk, and they’re going to move me five, six blocks away where I’ve got to take a car, and I’m not pleased about that at all.”