Alex Brower
2025 - Present
2028
0
Alex Brower is a member of the Milwaukee Common Council in Wisconsin, representing District 3. He assumed office on April 4, 2025. His current term ends in 2028.
Brower ran in a special election to the Milwaukee Common Council to represent District 3 in Wisconsin. He won in the special general election on April 1, 2025.
Brower completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Alex Brower was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Brower earned a bachelor's degree from Beloit College in 2010. His career experience includes working as an organizer.[1]
Brower has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Democratic Socialists of America, Milwaukee Chapter
- Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans
- Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association
- Milwaukee Substitute Teachers’ Association
Elections
2025
See also: City elections in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2025)
General election
Special general election for Milwaukee Common Council District 3
Alex Brower defeated Daniel Bauman in the special general election for Milwaukee Common Council District 3 on April 1, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Alex Brower (Nonpartisan)  | 53.9 | 8,185 |
 | Daniel Bauman (Nonpartisan) | 46.1 | 7,000 | |
| Total votes: 15,185 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Special nonpartisan primary for Milwaukee Common Council District 3
The following candidates ran in the special primary for Milwaukee Common Council District 3 on February 18, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Alex Brower (Nonpartisan) | 28.8 | 1,623 |
| ✔ | | Daniel Bauman (Nonpartisan) | 27.9 | 1,576 |
| Alexander Kostal (Nonpartisan) | 26.9 | 1,518 | ||
 | Nasser Musa (Nonpartisan) | 6.4 | 362 | |
| Franco Ferrante (Nonpartisan) | 3.1 | 173 | ||
| Josh Anderson (Nonpartisan) | 3.0 | 172 | ||
| Bryant Junco (Nonpartisan) | 2.2 | 123 | ||
| Ieshuh Griffin (Nonpartisan) | 1.6 | 93 | ||
| Total votes: 5,640 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Gary Lawrence (Nonpartisan)
Endorsements
Brower received the following endorsements.
2021
See also: Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin, elections (2021)
General election
General election for Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors District 5
Jilly Gokalgandhi defeated Alex Brower in the general election for Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors District 5 on April 6, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jilly Gokalgandhi (Nonpartisan) | 54.6 | 5,229 |
| Alex Brower (Nonpartisan) | 44.8 | 4,293 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 58 | ||
| Total votes: 9,580 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors District 5
Alex Brower and Jilly Gokalgandhi defeated Abbie Fishman and Kahri Phelps Okoro in the primary for Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors District 5 on February 16, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Alex Brower (Nonpartisan) | 37.0 | 2,031 |
| ✔ | | Jilly Gokalgandhi (Nonpartisan) | 33.9 | 1,862 |
 | Abbie Fishman (Nonpartisan) | 16.4 | 902 | |
 | Kahri Phelps Okoro (Nonpartisan) | 12.2 | 669 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 29 | ||
| Total votes: 5,493 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Candidate profile
Incumbent: No
Political Office: None
Biography: Brower received a bachelor's degree in political science from Beloit College. Brower worked as a substitute teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system and served as the president of the substitute teachers' union before becoming the executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans. Brower was also elected treasurer of the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America.
Show sources
Sources: Alex Brower's campaign website, "Platform," accessed March 4, 2021, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Socialist slate among newcomers vying for four open seats on Milwaukee School Board," Feb. 5, 2021; Alex Brower's campaign website, "Meet Alex Brower," accessed March 4, 2021, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, "Election 2021: Meet the school board candidates for District 5," Feb. 11, 2021
This information was current as of the candidate's run for Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors District 5 in 2021.
2020
See also: City elections in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2020)
General election
General election for Milwaukee City Comptroller
Aycha Sawa defeated Jason Fields in the general election for Milwaukee City Comptroller on April 7, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Aycha Sawa (Nonpartisan) | 50.4 | 41,298 |
 | Jason Fields (Nonpartisan) | 49.2 | 40,300 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 347 | ||
| Total votes: 81,945 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Milwaukee City Comptroller
Jason Fields and Aycha Sawa defeated Alex Brower in the primary for Milwaukee City Comptroller on February 18, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jason Fields (Nonpartisan) | 43.0 | 25,305 |
| ✔ | | Aycha Sawa (Nonpartisan) | 30.4 | 17,913 |
| Alex Brower (Nonpartisan) | 25.9 | 15,248 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 412 | ||
| Total votes: 58,878 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Alex Brower completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Brower's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Replace We Energies with a municipal utility by using Chapter 197 of Wisconsin State Statutes to acquire We Energies’ infrastructure in the City of Milwaukee and create a municipality-owned or cooperative electric utility. This will remove the profit motive from our energy bills and give Milwaukeeans a democratic say in what sources we use to generate our electricity. A municipal utility would likely allow lower rates and better service - for example, shorter outages on average when there are service interruptions. Thanks to democratic control and a lack of profit motive, it also allows for decisions to create more renewable energy sources.
- Fight for Public Schools. I will take action to cease the City of Milwaukee’s chartering of schools, and I will publicly and procedurally fight any attempt to eliminate the democratically elected school board of the City of Milwaukee, including a city, state or mayoral takeover.
- Third key message (750 character limit): Build Housing for People, Not for Profit, by publicly advocating for the building of affordable, safe, and dignified public housing, holding the city Housing Authority accountable, and always standing up to landlords and supporting tenants in any housing issue brought before the city. Additionally, I will fight to increase the city’s contribution to Eviction Free Milwaukee, which provides legal counsel to Milwaukee tenants facing eviction.
Therefore, accessibility to constituents and regular meetings with city community groups is a key responsibility of a local elected official, as we are often residents’ best or only option for bringing neighborhood issues to the attention of someone in city government who actually has the ability to act. I believe my long history with union and community organizing uniquely qualifies me out of all candidates in the race when it comes to representing, accommodating, and mediating the sometimes competing interests of a large, diverse group of people. I believe my existing connections to labor and community organizations will aid me immensely with community engagement.
As a community organizer, I believe it is important to meet regularly with constituents and resident groups to discuss concerns, proposals, and organizing and political strategies. In my work in organizations like labor unions and the Milwaukee DSA, I am well versed in working in an open, transparent manner in order to build a consensus among a diverse group of people, and that experience will serve me well in being a true representative of the district. I will follow regulations for public officials diligently, and I will be accountable to my membership organizations and to residents of the district both in person and at the ballot box.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2021
Alex Brower did not complete Ballotpedia's 2021 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Brower's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
As a School Board Director, Alex Brower will… Democratize education by opening up school and district-wide decision making to our community: parents, students, school staff, and residents. Our schools need to be community controlled. He will propose a democratic budgeting process where regular people decide how to spend the district’s money, a citizen policy initiative process to bring decision making power to regular people, and the creation of new seats on the school board to represent all of the communities in this city. Fight for public schools by holding charter and voucher schools accountable. Our community-owned public schools continue to be under threat from privatization. We need to strengthen our public school system that serves all students in Milwaukee. MPS does not currently have an existing policy that holds charter schools to the same high standards of our public schools. Create a Green New Deal for MPS by working to achieve MPS’ energy independence from fossil fuels and providing every student with an environment that supports their health, including providing high quality, healthy foods; mental health support instead of an unqualified police presence; and removing toxic infrastructure like lead. Stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter at School and work to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Wisconsin is the worst place to grow up if you are a Black child, according to a recent report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Our schools need to prioritize policies that work for our Black, Brown and Indigenous students and do not criminalize their behavior in schools. Alex will work to expand restorative justice practices while immensely lowering the use of suspensions and expulsions, and prioritize the recruitment and retention of educators and staff of color. Champion the struggle of MPS workers by providing healthcare to all full time employees regardless of what school they work in, ending the use of temp agencies, providing living wages, and doing everything possible to support and retain educators and staff of color. Ensure every student has access to the high quality education they need and deserve. Alex will fight to get more funding to reduce class sizes and support English Language Learners and special education students. He will work to expand bilingual and arts education opportunities, and work to ensure that students get the best education they can, with all of the resources they need, while learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] |
” |
| —Alex Brower's campaign website (2021)[3] | ||
2020
Alex Brower did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Milwaukee Common Council District 3 |
Officeholder Milwaukee Common Council District 3 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 6, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Alex Brower's campaign website, “Platform,” accessed March 4, 2021
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