Joel Brennan, a leader in the Milwaukee business community and a former Department of Administration secretary, today officially joined the Dem field for governor, vowing to confront growing costs and Donald Trump’s “chaos and incompetence.”
“I’ll be a governor who will stand up to Trump’s dysfunction and be laser focused on improving the lives of people across our state,” the president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee said in his roll-out video.
Brennan is now the 10th Dem to announce plans to run for guv, and other numbers prominently in his roll-out video. Brennan hasn’t previously held elected office and lost a 2003 Dem primary in a special election for the state Senate. He noted many likely weren’t familiar with him.
The numbers he ticked off in his video included the 10 siblings he grew up with, the five jobs he had to pay his way through college and the zero working blinkers on his first car. He also joked he combined to score 49 points with future NBA player Nick Van Exel when they faced each other in high school; Brennan said he accounted for eight of those points.
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The Dem field already includes: former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes; Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley; state Rep. Francesca Hong, of Madison; former WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes; former state Rep. Brett Hulsey, of Madison; Tim Jacobson, of Neenah; Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez; Zachary Roper, of Muskego; and state Sen. Kelda Roys, of Madison.
Brennan has spent the past four years as president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. Before that, he spent three years as DOA secretary under Dem Gov. Tony Evers, a period that included helping carry out the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also spent a dozen years as CEO of Milwaukee’s Discovery World, leading the science and technology center, and worked as an operative for former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
