Five people announced their campaigns to run for Madison mayor against incumbent Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway in the spring 2027 election, many with similar policies championing affordability, public safety and government accountability.
The next mayor will face an $11 million gap in the operating budget and citizen unrest after the Corey Ruiz shooting.
Kaleem Caire, founder and CEO of One City Schools, told the Wisconsin State Journal he intended to announce his candidacy for mayor on Sept. 15, but no announcement was made and no paperwork had been filed to the city as of Sept. 16.
All of the candidates mentioned police brutality or violence prevention except for Williams and Rhodes-Conway. Housing affordability was also mentioned by most of those running, as Madison broke its previous record on single-family home prices.
April Kigeya
April Kigeya launched her mayoral campaign on Sept. 10, championing the working class and acknowledging Madison’s faults in affordability.
Kigeya announced her candidacy with a video highlighting local concerns like rent prices and neighborhood safety. She said she will support small businesses, “good-paying jobs” and housing affordability.
“The challenges facing our city are real, but so is our ability to solve them,” Kigeya said in the video. “When we listen to one another, bring people together and put working families at the center of our decisions, we can build one Madison where all of us belong and all of us can thrive.”
Her campaign website lists seven priorities, including a community-led government and one residents can trust. Goals of Kigeya’s candidacy include violence prevention, expanding mobile crisis responses and holding open office hours.
Rhodes-Conway
Rhodes-Conway has been in office since 2019 and is promoting her work on affordable housing and modern transit system in her re-election campaign. She said, if reelected, she will work to make housing, transportation, energy bills and property taxes more affordable.
Rhodes-Conway blamed COVID-19 for delaying priorities in her first term and the focus on housing affordability in her second term for neglecting other areas, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Brian Benford
Brian Benford, former City Council member and alderman, stepped back from Madison politics three years ago, but in August he told the Cap Times he had to run for mayor after a “lack of city leadership” in the wake of the Corey Ruiz shooting.
If elected, Benford said he will focus on supporting minority and marginalized groups in Madison, only running for one term in order to pass leadership to the younger generation.
Syed Abbas
Syed Abbas, former Common Council president and alderman, currently serves as Wisconsin’s Deputy Legislative Director at the Department of Health Services.
“We need to make housing more affordable, strengthen our neighborhoods, support economic opportunity, invest wisely in public safety and infrastructure, and make sure every Madisonian has a chance to succeed,” Abbas said on his campaign website.
He notes the end goal of his mayoral run is making Madison a place people settle in by lowering property taxes, making homeownership more achievable and decreasing homelessness through city-run supportive housing programs.
Jonny Hinds
Johnny Hinds, known as Jon Hinds, founded the Monkey Bar Gym in Madison and has been outspoken on Facebook about police brutality, the spending of city funds and homelessness.
“Because ultimately, I think we all want the same things: we don't want people being shot on our streets,” Hinds wrote on a post. “We don't want families feeling ignored or forgotten. We don't want police officers put in situations where they have to make a split-second decision they'll live with forever.”
Larry Williams
Larry “Ace” Williams is a food service and hospitality director who submitted his paperwork close to Kigeya and Hinds. Not much else is known about him, according to 77 Square Miles.
The spring primary election will be held Feb. 16, 2027 and the spring election will be April 6, 2027, with all candidate options being finalized on Jan. 5, 2027.
