At Birchwood Grill Tuesday Night
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Some are calling the results of Tuesday night’s Kenosha County elections a “red wave.” Many conservative-leaning candidates defeated liberal-leaning candidates last night.
More specifically, the next County Executive will be the first Republican ever elected to the post. Also, for the first time in perhaps the history of the county board, it will be controlled by a conservative majority.
Kenosha County Executive
Samantha Kerkman is the longest serving republican in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Tuesday night, she was elected as the County’s first woman executive. As a republican, she pointed out that in her decades as a state representative, she worked across the aisle and will do the same as executive. Kerkman was joined by her parents and children to celebrate her victory at Birchwood grill. “We have a lot of work to do….as you all know, I’ve always worked together with the other side, so my values are conservative, but we are going to put forth plans and get going on day one. Tomorrow, I know I’m meeting at the County Exec’s office at 9:30 tomorrow morning. We just have so much to accomplish.” said Kerkman to a room full of supporters. Outgoing County Executive Jim Kreuser arrived to the gathering late and spoke with Kerkman. When asked by KCE if his endorsement of Rebecca Matoska-Mentink (Kerkman’s opponent) was the “kiss of death,” for her, he responded by saying “I think we have a new county executive, the people [of Kenosha County] have spoken – we’re gonna start transition tomorrow and it’s going to be another great day in Kenosha County.” Kreuser was a big supporter of democrat County Court Clerk Matoska-Mentink from the beginning and was very critical of Kerkman in public.
School Board
Democrat Rebecca Stevens retained her spot on the board and conservative-leaning Kristine Schmaling and Eric Meadows are joining the board.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
City Council
Alderman Paff was unseated by Brandi Feree
Celebrating at Birchwood Grill Tuesday
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
County Board
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Local business owner Brian Thomas defeated incumbent Dennis pierce who was recently appointed by the county board in an attempt to help his candidacy. Thomas and his wife Tamara were celebrating his victory at Birchwood.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
and School Board Member Tony Garcia
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Open Seat) Brian Bashaw defeated Larry Zamba by a huge margin, almost 2-1.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Pleasant Prairie
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
James Kedrow took a commanding lead against Brock Williamson, unseating him.
Samantha Kerkman’s Victory Speech
21 Responses
Great Job Samantha. Great Job Kenosha Conservatives.
Bye Bye Jim Kr(User).
I love the smell of napalm in the morning!
Congratulations to all the winners!!
Kenosha Republicans expect fiscal conservatism. If we do not get it we will go back to not bothering to learni who the local conservative candidates are and to not getting out to vote in off year elections.
Lower wastful spending and property taxes.
Adios Kenosha union machine. Don’t let the door hit you in you fat asses on the way out.
Conservatives still FAILED get up off their butts to elect ALL of the America First candidates.
paul- you are correct- and to see just how close many of these races were. the conservatives of kenosha should be pure ashamed of themselves if they failed to vote- no excuse.
in florida it is public record what party you are registered with at the elections office and to see who voted and who did not vote for what races. of course it is not public record to see who any voter voted for- just if they voted or not.
kevin- i credit you for calling out the liberals and making it known how terrible most of them are. and to think all you had to do was to tell the truth about them. thank you kevin- you are such a force for saying and doing the right thing!
good riddance to the bad apples.
Excellent and concise election coverage by KCE, it’s well formatted and easy to read. The best there is!
Thank you!
Happiness……..is when “Vote Blue No Matter Who” blows up in their faces!
Great reporting and well written !
Not much of a red wave, maybe in the County to an extent. Several left leaning and progressive candidates also won big- I notice this article fails to mention victories like Monica Yuhas, John Franco, and Anthon Kennedy. Overall however, it seems like a giant message to the local good ole’ boy establishment and political insiders that people are ready for change. This should be the beginning of a new era of leadership for Kenosha and that involves all elected leaders doing what is best for the community despite any political idealism from electeds on both sides.
I don’t know how else to describe it Kyle. The County Board went from an overwhelming majority of Democrats to now being majority conservative. The county exec was a liberal now is a Republican. This is the first time that that has ever happened in the history of the county. So that is not “to an extent”. This article did not mention any incumbents that retained their seats but instead focused on open seats and the unseating of incumbents, hence the title “change.”
I hear what you are saying, but the County Board has a 1-3 vote conservative majority depending on the issue at this point. That is not a total take over for anyone and the results really represent how divided Kenosha is. Kerkman is the first conservative elected to the County Exec position (by a notably small margin) however what you haven’t reported on this site is that a lot folks felt Rebecca Matoska was leaning conservative in her campaigning when it comes to her very unapologetic support of Kenosha police and endorsement from someone like David Beth. I do see now that the incumbants are not mentioned, thanks for clarifying that.
There is certainly a bigger discussion. Nice chatting Kyle.
They aren’t ready for change considering some of the people who were re-elected. I would go further to say that people don’t really care at all based on the turnout.
As a friend of Kathryn Woods, I was part of a group that campaigned for her. She worked her ass off up until the very end to get elected. Sadly, I think alot of people voted on name recognition or simply did not vote. I hope Mr. Kennedy sticks to his word by getting to know his new constituents and seriously considers their concerns.
So so happy with the overall results–really ecstatic about Samantha Kerkman!
Congrats, Samantha and conservatives! This is a great website. Wish we had something like this in Racine!
Beth, Kennedy will only do what is best for him. He took credit for U-Haul when it’s been recorded he didn’t want them in HIS district and is against their expansion. You can’t trust a person who has a forked tongue just to get elected. He would NEVER represent me. He should be very careful for the next two years. They might be his last.