Chairwoman Nicholson-Bovell Launches Campaign for County Executive

Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell. Photo provided by campaign.

Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell launched her campaign for Milwaukee County Executive Monday with an event at the Sherman Phoenix. Following Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s election as governor last week, she told Urban Milwaukee she would run to replace him as county executive.

Milwaukee County policymakers have expressed hope that Crowley’s election and a new Democratic trifecta could mean an end to frozen state aid, which has contributed to the county’s growing structural budget deficit. In launching her campaign, Nicholson-Bovell announced she would run on a platform of economic stability and investments in Milwaukee County Parks and the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS).

“I want parks that are free, safe and worth the trip,” she said in a statement. “I don’t want to just hold the line on transit. I want to expand it. That means a second bus rapid transit line, more routes, more buses that show up when you need them, and a safe, affordable ride around town even when gas prices climb.”

Nicholson-Bovell, 38, is a former Milwaukee Public Schools teacher and union organizer. Both of her parents were Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) employees. Nicholson-Bovell also worked for a time as an organizer with the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH). She was first elected to the county board in 2016. She served as vice chair to former Chairman Theo Lipscomb and was elevated to chair of the board in 2020.

She led the board through the COVID-19 pandemic and the passage of a new 0.4% sales tax that provided revenue to pay off and begin closing out the county’s disastrous pension system. A lucrative pension plan passed in 2000 and 2001 wrecked the county’s long-term finances, paying out huge lump-sum retirement payments called backdrops and minting millionaires out of former public employees.

As a supervisor, Nicholson-Bovell has led the county’s response to climate change, authoring resolutions that led to the development of a countywide emissions-reduction plan and a policy of evaluating county infrastructure spending for its impact on the county’s climate goals.

Her political career hit an early stumble in 2018 after she was arrested for OWI after crashing her car into a freeway median. More recently, she has faced public scrutiny for how she spent public funds from her office’s expense account and from her campaign account. Her colleagues on the county board elected her to a fourth term as chair in April, after which she delivered a reflective speech announcing that she has grown in the 10 years since she was first elected, a process that has involved making some mistakes publicly.

Under state law, the county clerk must order a special election within seven days of a county executive vacating the office. Crowley, who has two years left in his term, has said he plans to resign in time for the clerk to hold the special election during the spring election cycle. The spring primary election will be held Feb. 16, 2027. The general election will be held April 6, 2027.

When he resigns, Nicholson-Bovell will be acting county executive for up to 30 days while she appoints an interim county executive subject to board confirmation.