Alicia Halvensleben wins stunning victory in race for mayor in Waukesha
A Democrat has won the race for mayor in the largest city in the former Republican stronghold of Waukesha County.
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
While Chris Taylor’s astonishing 20-point landslide victory was the biggest story statewide for Wisconsin’s April 7 Spring Election, one of the biggest results of the night on the local level was Alicia Halvensleben winning the race for mayor in the city of Waukesha.
Halvensleben is serving in her second term on the Waukesha Common Council, first elected to a three-year term in 2022, and is in her second year as Council President. She has now won the open race for mayor by a 2.5% margin.
What makes this result especially interesting, though, is that Halvensleben is a Democrat. She has been active with Waukesha County Democrats for quite some time, and is currently the party’s chair for the 5th Congressional District. Her victory in the largest city in the former GOP stronghold of Waukesha County is a big, big deal.
The Republican Party’s eroding support in the suburbs has been an ongoing story in recent years, particularly in the Trump Era where GOP candidates used to put up massive margins of victory in the county. Now in 2026, liberal state Supreme Court candidate Chris Taylor closed the gap in the county to just eight points. In nearby Ozaukee County, it flipped blue for the first time since 1964. The suburbs are indeed shifting, particularly in these types of elections.
When I interviewed Halvensleben for our feature story on mayoral elections in Waukesha County, she talked about helping start a team to do canvassing for local candidates, seeing the political shift unfold right from the street level.
“We knew there were always Democrats in Waukesha County, but we’ve had to (tell people), no, you’re not the only one,” she said. “Over the last 10 years when I’ve been knocking on doors, so many people are like, ‘Don’t tell anybody, but I’m the Democrat on the street.’ And I was like, ‘Actually, there are five of you.’”
While the city of Waukesha leans more Democratic than the county overall, Halvensleben’s victory is still a stunner. In this open race for mayor, she faced a far more well-known candidate in Scott Allen, a Republican who has served in the State Assembly for more than a decade and had been endorsed by Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow. And while Waukesha has been trending left, it’s still a rather Republican-leaning county, and the city still broke for Trump by nearly 6% in 2024 and for Ron Johnson by nearly 9% in 2022.
Halvensleben will succeed outgoing mayor Shawn Reilly, who endorsed her campaign. Reilly’s political journey has been perhaps indicative of some of the shifts happening in Waukesha. A lifelong Republican, Reilly disavowed the party on Jan. 6, 2021, and endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024, telling The New York Times, “I’m very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president. I think we’ll be heading down a road of authoritarianism and fascism.”
Reilly wasn’t the only former Waukesha mayor who endorsed Halvensleben’s campaign. Larry Nelson, who was elected mayor of the city in 2006, also endorsed her campaign, and is also a Democrat. As columnist James Wigderson, a Waukesha resident and former editor of Right Wisconsin, noted in a recent piece, “the conditions are right for a Halvensleben upset win,” following a similar roadmap from Nelson’s surprise victory in a year with the political winds in Democrats’ favor.
During our interview, I asked Halvensleben what it would mean if a Democrat were to win the race for mayor in Waukesha. Here’s what she said:
“I think that would be a huge message to the GOP. This is no longer your county, (and) you don’t have a stronghold here anymore like you thought you did. I think it would send a very powerful message that Democrats are in play in Waukesha County — and especially in the city of Waukesha. If we can have a big win, a big pickup, I think that it would mean a lot.”
Halvensleben said that while it’s not just Trump driving Waukesha County’s changing politics, the president is certainly a factor.
“I think the Trump thing was the impetus for people to feel like, even if I am the only one, I want to get out there,” she said. “And when so many people felt like they were the “only one,” then suddenly there were a bunch of people. We saw more and more volunteers… Then, you start to feel like maybe I could win if I step up, maybe I have a chance.”
On what’s changing in the county’s politics, she added, “I think there’s kind of a combination of factors. Trump started this, and the Democrats are finishing it. We’re continuing to step up. We’re continuing to be engaged. We have people that want to run for office. And we have people who are truly involved in our communities … I think especially with people like Trump, folks are done with the cult of personality. They’re sick of career politicians. I’m just a normal person. I work in sales, middle management. My life is pretty boring, but I’m really engaged in my community. I love this community and I want to step up. I think that there are a lot of folks who feel that way.”
Halvensleben also said she wouldn’t have run had incumbent mayor Shawn Reilly run for re-election. But once Scott Allen jumped into the race, she felt compelled to run.
“Our community deserves better than Scott Allen, and I know that I’m going to be better than him,” said Halvensleben in that late February interview.
Now, she’ll have her chance to do just that.
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Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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I’m guessing the results of the Supreme Court race [and the mayoral races in Waukesha, Menomonie, and River Falls (the last two were defeats for double-digit year incumbents)] will be lightning fuel for Democratic recruiting and fundraising in those (and similar) areas during this year’s Assembly and Senate races.
I’d be surprised if more Republicans don’t announce retirement from the legislature after next week’s special session too. (E.g., Do Marklein and Novak really want to run in this environment?)