The Recombobulation Area is a 21-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer.
This article was part of the extended column, “8 Takeaways from the 2026 Election in Wisconsin,” which was first available for paid subscribers on Nov. 7.
In a span of a single week, Milwaukee’s baseball team won its first ever World Series, the city celebrated with 750,000 people at the victory parade in the largest ever event in state history, and voters sent one of Milwaukee’s own to be Wisconsin’s next governor.
Pretty good week for Milwaukee!
It’s always wonderful to see this spectacular city get its moment to shine. Milwaukee puts up with so much — and a lot of what it faces is entirely unfair — and so to see the city erupt in joy during the Milwaukee Brewers postseason run and World Series victory has been just remarkable.
It turned out not to be such a good time to be running a campaign based on Milwaukee-bashing when the city was looking like the happiest place in the world.
I will always loathe politicians who seek to build their profile or run campaigns based on the demonization of the state’s largest, most diverse city. Milwaukee has its problems just like any major city does, but so much of the criticism it faces is misguided and unfair. I grew up in the Waukesha County suburbs and know this dynamic well, and now having lived in the city for more than 15 years, I’ve seen time and time again just how wrong so much of that insultingly misguided rhetoric is. For Tom Tiffany to make Milwaukee-bashing essentially the cornerstone of the final stretch of his campaign is just so unbelievably toxic, and exactly the type of politics we need to be getting away from.
In the city of Milwaukee, Crowley received an astonishing 85.1% of the vote — the best mark in the city for any candidate this century. That’s higher than Barack Obama (79% in ‘08), higher than Herb Kohl (81% in ‘06). These are eye-popping numbers.
Thankfully, the voters saw it for what it was, no place more so than in Milwaukee County, which saw the single biggest shift toward Democrats of any of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Crowley won 76% of the vote in Milwaukee County, the best mark of any gubernatorial candidate this century, and better than any Milwaukee County result that even Barack Obama ever achieved.
In the city of Milwaukee, Crowley received an astonishing 85.1% of the vote — the best mark in the city for any candidate this century. That’s higher than Barack Obama (79% in ‘08), higher than Herb Kohl (81% in ‘06). These are eye-popping numbers.
Tiffany, on the other hand, got the lowest vote share in Milwaukee County of any statewide candidate in 20 years, and the lowest percentage in the city in modern history. Turns out running a decidedly anti-Milwaukee campaign had political consequences.
David Crowley now becomes the first governor from Milwaukee in decades, and the first Milwaukee Democrat to be elected governor in more than a century, when George Peck was elected in 1890.
Crowley often mentions how he is proud to be from the city of Milwaukee. That’s important. He should be proud to be from this incredible city. And in the annals of history, this will go down as one of the most remarkable weeks Milwaukee has ever seen.
Dan Shafer is an independent journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He worked with Civic Media from 2024 to 2026. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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