Olikara joins crowded Senate race
Next year’s Democratic race for U.S. Senate just got a bit more crowded.
Steven Olikara, a Brookfield native and former chief executive of the nonprofit Millennial Action Project, formally launched his campaign Tuesday in Milwaukee.
“We’re going to need a different kind of politics if we’re going to solve the scale of the problems, whether it’s climate change, the need for more dignified work, the need for immigration reform,” Olikara said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Olikara, 31, is relatively unknown to the wider public, and this is his first run for public office. He insisted he can win the primary.
“We’re planning on carving out a new lane around dignity and humanity that is inclusive,” he said. “We plan to energize Democrats, but also there are a lot of people feeling politically homeless right now and I’m not seeing traditional politicians reach out and listen to them. We plan to include them and expand the electorate in a way that we haven’t seen in a long time.”
During his campaign kickoff at No Studios, Olikara told supporters that “we don’t have to settle for a hatefilled vision of politics” and that people “can choose a better way.”
In late May, Olikara formed an exploratory committee to consider the run while embarking on what he called a “Dignity Tour,” listening to voters across the state.
“It was the connection on the ground” that led to his entry into the race, he said, as he listened to people talk about their challenges and their feeling “that politics is broken.”
Olikara became the 11th Democratic runner in a field where the top tier includes Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Alex Lasry, on leave from his job with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson hasn’t decided if he’ll run for a third term next year. But this week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who heads the GOP Senate campaign arm, suggested in an interview with the Journal Sentinel that Johnson will run.
Olikara insisted that his campaign can resonate with voters. Olikara was critical of Johnson for “trafficking in conspiracy theories” and for “neglecting core elements of the job, including constituent services.”
“But if the campaign for Democrats is premised on being anti-Ron Johnson, we’re missing the boat and we won’t win next year.”
Olikara was joined at his campaign roll out by former Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton; former state legislator Amanda Stuck; Keith Stanley, executive director of Near West Side Partners; and Lisa Mattes, a public school teacher.
“His smile was so bright I just one day called him Smiley Steve,” said Mattes, who taught Olikara in first grade. Years later, she said Olikara told her that the nickname helped him through a tough time, after he was attacked from behind and was hospitalized with facial injuries.
“Steven has a deep appreciation that it is our differences as people that make us special and that should be celebrated,” she said.
Lawton said she has known Olikara for more than a decade, from his student days at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lawton said Olikara “is intent on changing the culture of our politics today” and said he is capable of “rebuilding trust” and putting together a winning coalition.