Ashanti Hamilton Ends Mayoral Bid

The will he or won’t he debate surrounding Ashanti Hamilton‘s mayoral campaign ended today. He’s out.

The Common Council president won’t run for mayor, but he is running for re-election for his aldermanic seat.

Hamilton opened a mayoral campaign account in November, but never formally filed a declaration of candidacy for the office. The mayoral campaign account allows Hamilton to accept donations up to $6,000 instead of the approximately $800 aldermanic limit.

“The most important thing for me is: are the things I care about in the city of Milwaukee being addressed?” said Hamilton in July about what was guiding his decision on whether to run or not. The alderman has been one of the consistent advocates on the council for policies aimed at increasing racial equity and neighborhood investment.

Hamilton continued to delay, over a period of 10 months, whether to get into (or out of) the race, saying an announcement would come in one week in late July and then pivoting to “pretty soon” in early September. During that window another mayoral hopeful, Democratic state Sen. Lena Taylor, jumped into the race. Now Hamilton’s officially out, as he told members of the media today.

Ald. Tony Zielinski announced his campaign back in November 2017.  Incumbent Tom Barrett, whom Urban Milwaukee reported was running for re-election more than a year ago, continues to push off an official announcement. Joining the three political heavyweights are three little-known candidates: Paul Rasky, Tremell Noble and Daniel Crowley have filed to run.

And while Hamilton won’t face a crowded field in the mayoral race, he has already drawn two challengers for his 1st District council seat. Vincent Toney, who ran for the seat in 2016, and Antoine Dukes have both filed to run for the seat.

He also will need to run a different kind of campaign for his role as Common Council President. Hamilton relied on the support of Zielinski and Robert Donovan to secure the post and neither is running for re-election.

All elections for City of Milwaukee offices are non-partisan. The two top vote-getters in a February 2020 primary will advance to the April 2020 general election.