by Benjamin Yount
A defeated Wisconsin candidate in last week’s election in Milwaukee County has incited protests against the victor at her home, drawing the ire of many including a state representative who says it is “political thuggery.”
Democrat Russell Goodwin, an incumbent county supervisor, lost to conservative Deanna Alexander 640-446 in unofficial returns set for certification on Friday. He has since asked his supporters to protest – though it is unclear about what – at Alexander’s home, where she raises four children.
“If you’re a politician, you’re a public person,” Goodwin told a Milwaukee TV station. “People protested at all the houses. People protested at Tom Barrett’s house. They protested all over the place.”
Alexander and Goodwin were in a race with no candidates on the ballot, and eight people getting write-in votes. Alexander served in the same district from 2012 to 2020, but didn’t seek reelection two years ago. Goodwin didn’t qualify for the ballot because of signature issues.
State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, said Goodwin is going beyond being a sore loser.
“To engage in this kind of threatening behavior and to attempt to intimidate a mother of four and her family because she had the nerve to run for office and win, is simply beyond any form of decency,” Brandtjen said Wednesday.
Alexander said she’s worried about what the protests could become.
“I feel unsafe that he has asked for people to be emotionally aggressive to me and my family, to come to where I keep my children. And to go to my workplace. This is uncalled-for and it’s hostile, and it does not respect the democratic process,” Alexander told Fox6 in Milwaukee.
Brandtjen said she’s waiting for other Democrats in Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to speak out against Goodwin’s attempt at “political thuggery.”
“The Democrat Party has the audacity to lecture the rest of us on decorum and decency while they engage in the worst kind of uncivilized behavior,” Brandtjen added. “Should women be afraid to run for office in Milwaukee? Russell Goodwin should be ashamed of himself, and those who are silent should be ashamed as well.”
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Russell Goodwin” by Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Photo “Deanna Alexander” by Deanna Alexander.
