MUSKEGO, Wis. — The Black Voters League of Wisconsin has endorsed Pete Karas for Secretary of State, backing a candidate who has stood with Black communities on the issues that decide whether their votes count.

Karas is running on the Wisconsin Green Party line. His platform reads like a fix-list for the barriers that have kept Black turnout suppressed in Milwaukee, Racine, Beloit, and other cities: automatic voter registration, fair maps drawn by an independent commission instead of the legislature, lower ballot-access thresholds so new voices can get on the ballot, and public campaign financing so a candidate doesn’t need a donor class to run.

He knows the ground. Karas served three terms on the Racine City Council, a city where Black voters have spent years fighting to be heard and where election officials have been dragged through records fights over how people are allowed to cast a ballot.

“Pete Karas has stood behind the issues our communities care about, from protecting the right to vote to drawing fair maps to refusing to take Black voters for granted,” said Keith Fair, Chairperson of the Black Voters League of Wisconsin. “We don’t hand out endorsements for show. We give them to people who’ve earned our trust, and Pete has earned ours.”

Karas has made accountability the center of his campaign. He wants the Secretary of State office made nonpartisan, its records modernized and opened to the public, and its work insulated from the party games that have eroded trust in Wisconsin elections.

“An endorsement like this is a responsibility,” Karas said. “Black voters in this state have been taken for granted by one party and written off by the other. I’m asking for the job of protecting your vote, and I intend to earn it every day.”

Wisconsin’s Secretary of State is the weakest such office in the country, stripped of most of its powers since 1946. Karas argues that’s precisely why voters can back a reformer without risk: a vote for him carries no spoiler effect, just a demand that the office be rebuilt around access, transparency, and trust.

The Black Voters League of Wisconsin joins the Wisconsin Green Party, Transhumanist Party, Pirate Party, and Independence Party in endorsing Karas.

About the Black Voters League of Wisconsin

The Black Voters League of Wisconsin is a grassroots organization, not affiliated with any political party, working one-on-one with Black voters to encourage participation and turnout. The League hosts local candidate forums to help voters hear directly from those seeking office and make informed choices at the ballot box.

Pete Karas is a lifelong Wisconsinite, born and raised in Racine, and resides in Muskego. He accepts no corporate money.