Congratulations Ozaukee County Democrats! What an election night we had!!! I don’t know about you, but I spent most of Tuesday terrified! Then the results started to roll in from Georgia and the east coast! Wow!
Here in our county I am thankful to the hundreds of folks who knocked doors, made phone calls, put up signs, texted, and donated. Thank you to our DPW Regional Director Claire Brennan, DPW Field Organizer, Jameson Weyhrich, and Oz Dem Organizer Todd Auglur. Shout out to our Candidate Support Co-chairs Elizabeth Colacino and Nick Offerman. Neal Linkon and his Communications team kept the messages humming and our reach growing. Deb Anderson and Wendy Freitag kept a button on office volunteers. Thank you to Vice Chair Bob Tatterson and Treasurer Sara Dunstone for keeping the funding strand healthy and our books perfectly maintained. Two other members of our Executive Board Kitty Moore and Nick Korger helped behind the scenes in more ways than we know. Maggie Gorchoff, constant Membership Chair and cheerleader even tossed koozies into the crowd at our watch party.
We moved the needle again as our county turned further blue in the Crowley race. Every City in Ozaukee County voted for David Crowley along with the Villages of Theinsville and Bayside, and a very close (108 votes) race in the Village of Grafton. DPOC Committees and Committee Members as of 02/2026. Deb Andraca won her part of Ozaukee County for the very first time. Which brings me to the part of this piece that brings me both gratitude and sadness. We had three hardworking, brilliant, and generous candidates not get the outcome we wanted. First, Brad Smith ran a stellar campaign against Glenn Grothman for Congress. That District is plus 20 Republican. Brad came within nine points, the best anyone has ever done against him. Dana Glasstein knocked more doors than should be humanly possible and got very close to beating Paul Melotik in AD 22. Jack Holzman got six points closer to a victory in AD 59. I consider all of these candidates my friends and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their willingness to put their lives on hold and run these very difficult campaigns. If you see them, give them a hug!
I also want to applaud our “adopted” State Senate race SD 21, where we helped Trevor Jung flip that Republican seat. Because we had no local State Senate race this year we looked for a race where we could help. Trevor won that race with 58% of the vote. Thanks for your support!
The political power and landscape has shifted dramatically. Even though we lost those races, the Republicans no longer control the agenda in Madison. Fot the first time in sixteen long years, we have a totally Democratically controlled Governor and legislature in Wisconsin. In Washington, Wisconsin is sending two more Democrats to Congress. Rebecca Cooke in CD 3 and Mitchell Berman in CD1. Democrats control both houses of Congress. Which means back here in Ozaukee County we need to hold our Democratic Brothers and Sisters accountable both in Madison and DC.
One last thing, we have local Democratic County Party elections in December. We will start gathering nominations for our officers and members at large this month. The deadline for nominations will be December 9th, seven days before the December 16th monthly membership meeting. I am planning on running for another term and I hope I have your support.
We can take a little breath until next month when we start on spring elections.
Thanks and huge congratulations. You did it. Whew!
- Deb