Not the greatest Schoemann: Why the Washington County Executive’s referendum failure means he’s a bad candidate for governor
In 2022, Josh Schoemann failed to pass a referendum that should have been a "political participation trophy." Guest column from Jordan Morales.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time NINETEEN-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.
In a move that came as little surprise to those who pay attention to regional or state politics, Josh Schoemann has announced his candidacy for Governor of Wisconsin for 2026.
Schoemann currently serves as the County Executive of Washington County, a suburban county home to just under 140,000 people. He was also the president of the school board for Hartford Union High School. He has held various other government jobs following his time serving in the Army National Guard, where he worked as a mechanic from 2000 to 2006, and served overseas in the Iraq War.
The Wisconsin GOP has been desperate for new statewide candidates, having recently run several contenders who had already been rejected by Wisconsinites like Brad Schimel, Dan Kelly or Tim Michels. In that regard, Schoemann might present as a breath of fresh air. At the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s convention this past weekend, Schoemann narrowly won the WisPolitics straw poll, a few votes ahead of Congressman Tom Tiffany.
The Washington County Executive’s larger political ambitions became clear to many when, out of the blue, he started attacking Milwaukee. In fact, it seemed to be the only way he could garner any news coverage. He would taunt Milwaukee regarding the city’s efforts to reform the state’s shared revenue program for local governments. He would mock the city for “defunding the police,” despite Milwaukee appropriating more money to the police department than anytime in history. He was an overall hindrance to anything positive happening for local governments during this time.
He himself had to confront the broken shared revenue system when the Washington County Sheriff said that they did not have the resources necessary to provide an acceptable level of law enforcement services to county residents. Schoemann was faced with the same tough decisions that all municipalities had to reckon with under stagnant state aid and limited revenue options: he would have to make cuts in order to fund the police.
But Schoemann, the shrewd politician that he is, devised another plan — something that could be a win-win scenario for his political career. Schoemann washed his hands of the tough decision and sent the required police spending to a referendum. If the people of Washington County wanted proper police resources, they were going to have to pay for it out of their pockets, not out of Schoemann’s political capital.
For Schoemann, this seemed like a slam dunk. He exuded confidence that the referendum would pass. He derided Milwaukee for appealing to the state for assistance, stating that Washington County would never do such a thing and was committed to funding their own police. He knocked on doors every day for the referendum, certain he had the wind at his back.
For a Republican politician in 2022, this is a dream scenario: a pro-police referendum in a conservative county that might have more “We Support Our Police” yard signs than anywhere else in the state, near a liberal city dealing with crime that has been painted as “defunding the police.” Any decent politician could have had this passed with 60% or more of the vote.
But Schoemann failed to get the police funding referendum passed, and it wasn’t particularly close. Only 43% of his constituents voted in favor of what he had hoped would be his great achievement. “I am surprised,” Schoemann said of his neighbors’ rejection of what should have been a political participation trophy.
Thankfully for Washington County, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley had been negotiating with Republican legislators in Madison for a shared revenue reform deal that also included an allowance for Milwaukee to raise its sales tax at the city and county level.
The steady engagement from Johnson and Crowley with leaders from across the aisle resulted in a 323% increase in shared revenue for Washington County, bailing Schoemann out of his embarrassing public safety referendum failure. “This reform will inject a significant amount of new money into the system,” Schoemann said when the bill was passed and signed.
Schoemann, the political animal that he is, couldn’t give any credit for the deal which he had both mocked and depended on to Johnson and Crowley, both Milwaukee Democrats. You see, Schoemann’s schtick depends on Milwaukee being the villain. He isn’t interested in working with the city or influencing positive change. So, he launched a campaign to try and discourage Wisconsinites from spending money in the City of Milwaukee due to the sales tax being slightly higher (you may recall this led to a war of words involving the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain).
This effort, if successful, would have defunded the Milwaukee Police Department more than any liberal mayor could have dreamed of, since the sales tax revenue goes to MPD and their pensions. And yet, in another show of political ineptitude, Schoemann failed to lure consumers away from the city’s nominally higher prices as Milwaukee blew projections away by bringing in more than $200 million in sales tax revenue in 2024.
What does this mean for the 2026 gubernatorial race? Schoemann lives in a world of political privilege. He takes in a handsome salary as an ardent conservative in a very conservative county. His political failure with the public safety referendum was bandaged with the incredible success of those who he fancies to be political rivals. But he is not persuasive and his message does not resonate.
Despite being shrewd, calculated and conniving, Josh Schoemann is somehow not a good politician. The Washington County Executive is not going to be able to convince purple state voters to turn out for him when he couldn’t even convince the good conservative people of Washington County to fund their police.
This political incompetence should serve as an early warning to Wisconsin GOP leadership: if you want any chance of taking back the Governor’s Mansion, look elsewhere than Josh Schoemann.
Jordan Morales is a father, construction engineer, Air Force veteran, resident of Sherman Park and serves as a Historic Preservation Commissioner. He’s also written for Urban Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow him on X @Morales4MKE.
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