Mike Bare

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Mike Bare
Image of Mike Bare
Wisconsin State Assembly District 80
Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor
Prior offices
Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32
Predecessor: Jason Knoll

Compensation

Base salary

$57,408/year

Per diem

$155.70/day (with overnight) or $77.85/day (no overnight)

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Manitowoc Lincoln High School

Bachelor's

American University, 2005

Graduate

American University, 2010

Personal
Birthplace
Manitowoc, Wis.
Religion
None
Profession
Legislator
Contact

Mike Bare (Democratic Party) is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing District 80. He assumed office on January 3, 2023. His current term ends on January 4, 2027.

Bare (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Wisconsin State Assembly to represent District 80. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Bare completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Mike Bare was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Bare graduated from Manitowoc Lincoln High School in 2001. He earned a B.A. in political science in 2005 and an M.A. in political science in 2010, both from American University. His career experience includes working as a researcher and advocate at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, co-owner of the Biergarten at Olbrich Park, and managing director of the Virginia Sims Bare Family Foundation.[1] [2]He was elected to the Verona City Council in 2013.[1]

Bare has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1][2]

  • New Leaders Council-Wisconsin
  • Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin
  • Dane County Housing Authority
  • Special Olympics of Wisconsin
  • Verona Parks Commission
  • Verona Plan Commission
  • Wisconsin Public Health Association

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Bare was assigned to the following committees:


Elections

2024

See also: Wisconsin State Assembly elections, 2024

General election

General election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Incumbent Mike Bare defeated Robert Relph in the general election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare (D) Candidate Connection
 
73.4
 
30,593
Image of Robert Relph
Robert Relph (R)
 
26.5
 
11,038
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
36

Total votes: 41,667
Candidate Connection = 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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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Incumbent Mike Bare defeated Nasra Wehelie in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on August 13, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare Candidate Connection
 
78.3
 
12,169
Image of Nasra Wehelie
Nasra Wehelie Candidate Connection
 
21.6
 
3,357
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
14

Total votes: 15,540
Candidate Connection = 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.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Robert Relph advanced from the Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on August 13, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Robert Relph
Robert Relph
 
99.3
 
2,509
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.7
 
18

Total votes: 2,527
Candidate Connection = 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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Campaign finance

Endorsements

To view Bare's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Bare in this election.

2022

State Assembly

See also: Wisconsin State Assembly elections, 2022

General election
General election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Mike Bare defeated Jacob Luginbuhl in the general election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare (D) Candidate Connection
 
69.7
 
23,380
Image of Jacob Luginbuhl
Jacob Luginbuhl (R)
 
30.3
 
10,156
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.1
 
27

Total votes: 33,563
Candidate Connection = 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.

Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Mike Bare defeated Anna Halverson, Chad Kemp, Dale Yurs, and Doug Steinberg in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on August 9, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare Candidate Connection
 
47.7
 
4,921
Image of Anna Halverson
Anna Halverson
 
27.1
 
2,802
Chad Kemp
 
19.4
 
2,003
Image of Dale Yurs
Dale Yurs Candidate Connection
 
4.5
 
460
Doug Steinberg
 
1.3
 
132
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.0
 
3

Total votes: 10,321
Candidate Connection = 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.

Republican primary election
Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80

Jacob Luginbuhl defeated Nathan Graewin in the Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 80 on August 9, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jacob Luginbuhl
Jacob Luginbuhl
 
55.5
 
1,935
Nathan Graewin
 
43.8
 
1,526
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.7
 
23

Total votes: 3,484
Candidate Connection = 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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Campaign finance


Dane County Supervisors

See also: Municipal elections in Dane County, Wisconsin (2022)

General election
General election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32

Incumbent Mike Bare won election in the general election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32 on April 5, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare (Nonpartisan)
 
98.9
 
1,914
 Other/Write-in votes
 
1.1
 
21

Total votes: 1,935
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = 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

The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Mike Bare advanced from the primary for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32.

2020

See also: Municipal elections in Dane County, Wisconsin (2020)

General election

General election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32

Mike Bare won election in the general election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32 on April 7, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Mike Bare
Mike Bare (Nonpartisan)
 
99.4
 
3,907
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.6
 
25

Total votes: 3,932
Candidate Connection = 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

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Mike Bare completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bare's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Mike bare is a public servant, community advocate, and small business owner. He was elected to the State Assembly, District 80, in 2022. In the Assembly, Mike is a recognized progressive champion on issues affecting workers, economic security, people with disabilities, democracy, and the environment. Mike is a former longtime aide to progressive champion U.S. Senator Russ Feingold. Mike previously served on the Dane County Board, was an Alder on Verona City Council, served on Verona’s Plan Commission and chaired Verona’s Parks and Recreation Commission.

From 2010 to 2022, Mike was an advocate for Wisconsin’s low-income population at the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. Mike worked to solve Wisconsin’s housing crisis, expand health coverage and improve healthcare, advance economic security solutions, improve our criminal justice and corrections systems, and get Wisconsinites out of poverty through work-based solutions. ​In 2017, Mike started a community-focused and family-friendly business: The Biergarten at Olbrich Park. The Biergarten is enjoyed by tens of thousands of families every year, and it has raised a significant amount of money for Madison City parks and community causes.

Mike and his wife met while interning together for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, and now have two young sons and happily reside in the City of Verona. Mike enjoys tending his moderately successful vegetable garden, loves to coach the boys’ baseball teams, and to cook.
  • We must protect our democracy, restore our rights, and invest in our communities. Republicans have been far too successful in degrading voters’ confidence in our democracy. I advocate for pro-democracy policies like ballot drop boxes, automatic voter registration, voting by mail, and public financing of campaigns.
  • Too many of our rights—voting, collective bargaining, reproductive health choice, LGBTQ+ rights, and our freedom to assemble free from fear of gun violence—have been taken away or eroded in recent years.
  • We must make investments in our communities, including strong public schools and higher education, housing for everyone, transit options, childcare, Medicaid expansion, and environmental protections. I am a leader in the State Assembly on legislation to help working people. I introduced bills to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (AB471) that puts more money in workers’ pockets, expand the Homestead Credit (AB458) that helps people pay rent or the mortgage, and create WISEARNS, a state-facilitated retirement savings program for workers whose employers don’t provide it. We have a state budget surplus that could fund these priorities and more.
I worked the first six years of my career for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold. I appreciated his deep devotion to progressive values, which I share. And I model my work ethic after his. He was a prolific legislator, and relentless campaigner. He visited each of Wisconsin's 72 counties every year. Feingold had a backbone and served with full integrity. He was fully committed to having excellent constituent services. And he hired an amazingly talented team, who I also learned from and I am still close with many of them.
I remember the Challenger explosion happening in 1986. I was around three years old. It was shocking and sad for everyone, and was impactful in my household because my mom had been a public school teacher and one of the astronauts who passed away was a teacher.
I worked two first jobs--I was a clerk at Osco Drug Store (now CVS) and a little league umpire. I did both jobs from age 16 through most of college summers. Being a little league umpire teaches one the patience of a rock and how to handle conflict with poise. I wouldn't trade that experience for any other!
Gov. Tony Evers, former Gov. Jim Doyle, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, State Senators Dianne Hesselbein, Kelda Roys, Mark Spreitzer, and Melissa Agard. State Reps. Lisa Subeck, Alex Subeck, Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, and more than 20 others. More than 100 elected officials in all. Organizations: Planned parenthood, WEAC, Moms Demand Action, AFSCME, AFT-Wisconsin, IBEW, UAW, WI Pipe Trades, SEIU, WI Conservation Voters, Clean Wisconsin
I've served the past two years on the Housing Committee, which is an issue area I have much policy experience with. On that Committee, I worked with the Republican Chair to invest more than half a billion dollars in workforce housing development. I also led efforts to oppose a Republican attempt to defund the state's homeless services and criminalize homelessness. I'd like to continue on that Committee.

For the past year I served on the State Affairs Committee where Republicans send some of the bills most important to them.
I also enjoyed serving on the Parks, Forestry, and Outdoor Recreation Committee. It is one of the committees with an environmental protection mission, which is of interest to me.
I also served on the Insurance Committee, which was relatively inactive.

I'd like to serve on the Health Committee, and the Joint Committee on Finance, which writes the state budget.

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.

2022

State Assembly

Candidate Connection

Mike Bare completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bare's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I'm a Progressive Democrat running for State Assembly in Wisconsin's 80th District. I'm a former longtime aide to Russ Feingold, and I am on the Dane County Board. I have the experience to fight for our democracy, our basic rights, including a good and free public education, access to affordable and quality healthcare and housing, and women's rights. I'll also work to protect our environment.
  • Mike strives for progress on our challenges guided by progressive values: Empathy for Others, Fairness in Processes, Equity in Outcomes, Service to Community, and Devotion to Family
  • The Wisconsin we have today is a result of purposeful choices, and I will be part of making better choices happen. We don’t have to make it difficult to vote, or cause people to be uninsured or homeless.
  • Republicans in the Legislature have been attacking and undermining our democracy and the fabric of what holds us together as a state. I’m ready to fight for the right to vote, to end partisan gerrymandering, and to stop the purposeful spread of disinformation.
Defend Our Democracy

Republicans in the Legislature have been attacking and undermining our democracy and the fabric of what holds us together as a state.

Protect Our Basic Rights:

Public Education
A strong public education in good schools with well-paid educators is the bedrock of our state. Mike's Mom was a public school teacher. Mike will be a champion for educators and students in the State Assembly and actively work to protect and improve our schools.

Healthcare
Everyone has the right to affordable and high-quality healthcare, but not every Wisconsinite has access to it. This is especially true in the rural areas of the 80th District.

Women
Women’s rights, especially the right to choose, get Mike's full and unconditional support.

Housing
Far too many of our neighbors and school children struggle with housing insecurity and bouts of homelessness. Mike is an expert on housing policy and wants Wisconsin to transform how we guarantee everyone has access to affordable, quality, and stable shelter.

Broadband
Every Wisconsinite has a right to access information and virtual tools that are vital to wellbeing, school, business, and social and family connection.

Environment

We must work to ensure our planet will be safe for the next generation and their kids too.

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.

Dane County Supervisors

Mike Bare did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Mike Bare did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Mike Bare campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* Wisconsin State Assembly District 80Won general$102,168 $82,175
2022Wisconsin State Assembly District 80Won general$78,650 $69,215
Grand total$180,817 $151,391
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Wisconsin

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Wisconsin scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.


2024


2023







See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wisconsin State Legislature, "Representative Mike A. Bare," accessed February 27, 2023
  2. 2.0 2.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 1, 2024

Political offices
Preceded by
Sondy Pope (D)
Wisconsin State Assembly District 80
2023-Present
Succeeded by
-
Preceded by
Jason Knoll
Dane County Board of Supervisors District 32
2020-2023
Succeeded by
-


Current members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
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