“I am immensely proud of what I and my team have achieved over the past seven and a half years as we have worked to make Madison a better place and to prepare the path for future success. My tenure has been marked by unprecedented challenges including COVID-19 and a state legislature intent on taking away our funding and powers. Despite the challenges, we achieved a great deal for those who choose to make Madison home.
Under my watch, we implemented bus rapid transit after 30 years of talking about it. We reduced traffic crashes and invested heavily in safety on our streets. Thanks to my administration’s housing policies, we have seen 19,000 new homes built with thousands more in the pipeline. We launched and grew the successful CARES program to help divert people experiencing mental health crises from the criminal justice system, and increased Madison’s investment in violence prevention. The City of Madison now uses 83 percent renewable energy, on track to meet our goal of 100 percent by 2030. Through tough economies and attacks from Republicans in the legislature, we have been able to invest in critical programs that help people across the community. We made the largest investment in homeless services in Madison’s history. We invested in infrastructure, in parks, in resources for young people, in small business, and in so much more.
None of this could have happened without the dedicated professionals who work for the City of Madison, and the support of many Alders. I’m grateful to them. Thanks to our work, Madison is thriving. People want to live here, businesses want to locate and grow here, and our quality of life is high. We are not perfect – we still have persistent racial and economic disparities, and we are not immune to the national economic trends - but compared to many other cities, we are doing very well.
I’m proud of these accomplishments and confident that voters would judge my record favorably and grant me another term. However, after much reflection, I have decided not to seek reelection in April. It has been a tremendous honor to be your Mayor. We have moved Madison forward and our record proves that. But for me, the price of serving has become too high. This was not an easy decision, but it is the right decision for me and my family, our personal safety, mental health and wellbeing.
During my remaining time in office, I hope that we can all take a hard look at our local political ecosystem. Madison has long been home to impassioned and spirited debate. But it is not hyperbole to say local democracy is at risk, not just from MAGA and right-wing extremists in the federal and state governments, but from a toxic political culture that is transcending partisanship and ideology.
Harassment, threats, and lack of civility are driving people away from public service. According to the Bridging Divides Institute, “during the first quarter of 2026, 76 percent of local officials said they were less willing to engage in at least one of several key political or civic activities, such as working on controversial issues or running for higher office, due to concerns about harassment and threats of violence. These negative impacts are especially pronounced for women officials, minority officials, and new officeholders – a persistent trend that undermines representative local democracy.”
This has been my experience as well. I have always welcomed honest disagreement and invited community input, but over the years the balance has shifted from productive discussion to increasingly vitriolic, personal attacks from people who seem not to care about actually understanding and debating an issue. How can any leader govern responsibly when personal attacks and baseless conspiracies carry more weight than facts? How can any Mayor be effective when a difference of opinion is cast as unforgivable betrayal that justifies threats of violence?
When I ran for mayor, I expected to make sacrifices – but I did not expect the level of threats to myself, Council members, my staff, and my family. I did not expect our civic discourse to deteriorate so severely. And I did not expect the levels of implicit and explicit sexism to which I have been subjected to from the very beginning of my first campaign.
Madison’s continued progress requires good government and serious engagement from our community. It requires engagement with curiosity; engagement across differences; engagement outside of social media bubbles. It requires people to be hard on systems but soft on people. It will require dedicated people to take on public service, and it will require our community to create a civil environment, free from threats and harassment, so people feel safe in public service and have room to make hard decisions.
We need leaders who are more interested in making the government function well than in performing for social media. We need leaders who want to continuously improve, but won’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We need leaders who are able to listen to and balance a wide range of voices. Above all, we need leaders who put the needs of Madison before their popularity or political futures.
And we need to elect leaders who understand the job they are running for. I have found that the role of a Mayor is misunderstood, as are most executive roles. It may look like all groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings, but the two biggest things a successful mayor does are hiring and managing good people, and creating budgets (often with very limited resources) that allow those people to do good work. We should evaluate candidates on their ability to manage and budget, not just their rhetoric and campaign promises.
I first ran for office because I believe in the potential of our city. I believe Madison has the potential to create a future in which the price of service is not too high for a broad and diverse set of future leaders, who feel empowered to tackle hard problems without fear of threats and harassment. All of us can be part of creating that future, by leading with curiosity, engaging across differences, and extending each other grace. We can get to know our neighbors and connect in person instead of through screens. And we can choose to find ways to make a positive difference rather than sitting back and criticizing. I believe Madison wants to be the kind of community where anyone can safely step into leadership, and I believe that we can choose to make that a reality.”
