Progressive Primary Challenger Luna Defeats Ortiz-Velez

Ismael Luna. Photo provided by the Luna campaign.

Ismael Luna, a first-time candidate and progressive Democrat, defeated three-term incumbent state Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, a moderate, in a hotly contested primary on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Luna was winning 73.6% to 26.3% with all in-person votes reported. Absentees were still outstanding at the time of publication.

Luna is a caseworker at The Cathedral Center, a downtown homeless shelter. He recently graduated from George Washington University with a master’s degree in public policy. During his time in school, he interned for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and the State Department. Luna is a child of immigrants who experienced homelessness as a teenager.

Ortiz-Velez first won election to the state Assembly in 2020, defeating JoAnna Bautch. She fended off a primary challenge in 2022 from Enrique Murguia. Ortiz-Velez was first elected to public office in 2018, winning a seat on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. She is a native of Milwaukee’s South Side, growing up in the Lincoln Village neighborhood and graduating from Bay View High School.

Assembly District 8 is a Democratic stronghold, including Hispanic-majority neighborhoods and Walker’s Point, the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community.

Ortiz-Velez, who has crossed party lines to pass legislation with Republicans, went into the election cycle alienated from her Democratic colleagues in the state Assembly. Personal feuds and allegations of criminal conduct involving a colleague, which she denied but later plead no contest to, increased her isolation.

In May, the Milwaukee County Democratic Party (MKE Dems) took the unusual step of seeking an endorsement for Luna from the Wisconsin Democratic Party. The move stirred pushback within the party and ultimately led to a majority of the executive board resigning.

In the final month of the campaign, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee gave Luna more than $110,000 in campaign cash and in-kind donations. A liberal dark money group, which does not need to publicly report the source of its funding, also began running attack ads against Ortiz-Velez.

Luna now faces perennial Republican candidate Angel Sanchez in the November general election. The district has a strong liberal lean.

Luna Campaign Statement

“Esta noche es de ustedes. Tonight belongs to District 8. Six months ago, this campaign was just an idea between neighbors. Tonight, it’s a victory. For too long, the South Side has been told to wait. Wait for better schools. Wait for safer streets. Wait for housing we can afford. No más. The waiting ends now. And I’m not going to Madison alone. I’m bringing this whole community with me. Así es la comunidad. We help each other. This community raised me. It carried me through the hardest moments of my life. And tonight, it sent me to Madison to fight for us. I don’t forget where I come from, and I never will,” Luna said in a statement Tuesday night.