Madison’s Mayoral Race Grows to Seven
Key Points
Three new candidates have filed paperwork with the Madison City Clerk to run for mayor: April Kigeya, Larry Williams, and Jon Hinds.
They join Syed Abbas, Brian Benford, Kaleem Caire, and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, bringing the total to seven candidates for the April 6, 2027 election.
Kigeya served on the Dane County Board of Supervisors from 2022 until she resigned at the end of 2025; Williams is a hospitality and food service director, and Hinds founded Monkey Bar Gym.
Every candidate must file nomination papers with at least 200 valid signatures by 5 p.m. on January 5, 2027, and a February 16 primary will reduce the field to two.
The candidates are entering a race in which City Hall faces an $11 million gap in the 2027 operating budget and the aftermath of the police shooting of Corey Ruiz.
April Kigeya, left, a former Dane County supervisor, and Jon Hinds, founder of Monkey Bar Gym, have filed with the City Clerk to run for mayor of Madison.
Five candidates have filed paperwork with the Madison City Clerk to run for mayor: Syed Abbas, Brian Benford, Jon Hinds, April Kigeya, and Larry Williams.[1] Abbas and Benford announced their campaigns on August 25, and the Wisconsin State Journal, Isthmus, and the local television stations covered the announcements.[2]
Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Kaleem Caire have also entered the race but have not filed with the Clerk. Rhodes-Conway announced on July 16 that she will seek a third term.[4] Until she files, she is not a candidate on paper, and she has until 5 p.m. on January 5, 2027, to decide.[5] Caire, the founder and chief executive of One City Schools, told the State Journal he plans to announce his campaign on September 15.[2]
Kigeya, Williams, and Hinds
April Kigeya represented District 15 on the Dane County Board of Supervisors from April 2022 until the end of 2025.[6][7] The district covers parts of Madison’s west side and the southern part of Middleton.[6] She was reelected in 2024 and resigned at the end of 2025 after moving out of the district.[6][7] On the County Board, she was vice chair of the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee and co-chair of the Community Justice Council’s Racial Disparities Subcommittee.[6] When she ran for reelection in 2023, she was the chief financial and human resources officer at Wingra School.[8] She holds a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from UW-Madison.[8]
Larry Williams, who goes by Ace, is a hospitality and food service director, according to Isthmus.[3] Little else is known about him.
Jon Hinds, listed on the Clerk’s page as Jonny Hinds, founded Monkey Bar Gym in Madison.[9] He is a former strength and conditioning coach in the National Basketball Association and a University of Wisconsin graduate.[9] He has been posting short videos about city issues on social media.[20]
Rhodes-Conway, Benford, Abbas, and Caire
Satya Rhodes-Conway has been mayor since 2019. She defeated Paul Soglin that year and Gloria Reyes in 2023.[4] When she announced her third campaign on July 16, she named affordability as the overriding concern for Madison families.[2] She cited the city’s first Bus Rapid Transit line, a tripled affordable housing fund, and the Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES) program.[2] CARES dispatches paramedics and mental health workers instead of police to nonviolent behavioral and mental health calls.[2]
Brian Benford represented Madison’s East Side on the Common Council in the 2000s and again from 2021 to 2023.[2] He has lived in Madison since 1979 and has worked for 35 years as a social worker, family advocate, educator, and activist.[2] He chaired the city’s Equal Opportunities Commission and works as a success coach for the UW-Madison Odyssey Project.[2] He said he is running because of concerns about the city’s handling of racial and social justice issues, and he named affordable housing, transportation, and economic development as further priorities.[2]
Syed Abbas represented District 12 on the Common Council from 2019 to 2022 and served as council president.[2] He resigned in 2022 to spend more time with his family.[2] Abbas was born in Pakistan.[3] He ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly in District 46 and works as a deputy legislative director at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.[2] He listed homeownership and affordable housing, responsible city government, safe neighborhoods, and social and environmental justice as his priorities.[2]
Kaleem Caire grew up in Madison.[2] He returned to the city in 2010 to lead the Urban League of Greater Madison and founded One City Schools in 2014.[2] He told the State Journal he wants Madison led by someone born and raised in the city.[2]
The issues the candidates will be asked about
On June 9, Mayor Rhodes-Conway told city agencies that the 2027 operating budget has an “$11.0 million gap between revenues and expenditures.”[10] She directed every agency to propose service reductions of at least 2 percent of its 2027 base budget.[10]
On July 22, a Madison police officer shot and killed Corey Ruiz, 38, at the intersection of Williamson and South Baldwin streets.[11] Protesters set up a memorial encampment at the intersection.[12] On August 4, city crews cleared the encampment and police arrested at least 16 people.[12] On the afternoon of August 4, after an altercation with officers near the cleared encampment, interim Independent Police Monitor Aeiramique Glass, known as Meeka Glass, was recorded saying she would burn the city down.[13] Mayor Rhodes-Conway said it was disturbing for a city employee to call for violence.[14] On September 9, Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke granted officer Fabiola Ortiz a four-year restraining order against Glass after a hearing Glass did not attend.[22] Ortiz petitioned for the order on August 31, and Madison police have referred the August 4 dispute to the Green Bay Police Department for an independent investigation.[22]
Alders have also proposed changes to Madison General Ordinances 5.19 and 5.20, which create the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Police Civilian Oversight Board. Legistar 92386, introduced on March 24, was referred to the oversight board on March 24, referred to it again on April 21, and withdrawn on August 4.[15] I wrote about the proposal in April and again in July.[16][17] No replacement has been introduced.[15]
The candidates will also be asked about the Mayor’s development agenda and about the capital costs of projects like the public market, the men’s homeless shelter, and the Bus Rapid Transit system. Madison Metro ended 2025 nearly $6 million short, and its deficits will come up too.[18] They will be asked how the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Police Civilian Oversight Board are organized and run, where new revenue will come from, and what to do about rising property taxes and housing costs. They will also be asked about the Mayor’s new role as the city’s chief policymaker, a major shift in how city policies are developed. She gave herself that title in a February 11 op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the absentee ballot lawsuit, writing, “So let me be clear as the chief policymaker in Madison.”[21]
What do you think the most important issues in the mayoral race will be? Comment below.
What a field of seven means for voters
With seven candidates, Madison will hold a primary, and the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the April election.[5][19] A primary means more press coverage of the race and of City Hall, more voter engagement, and, I hope, more candidate debates. A contested primary is a win for voters and for better government, because it forces the Mayor to account for her record and to campaign for the job. The field can still grow, because anyone who files a campaign registration statement and collects 200 valid signatures by January 5 will be on the ballot.[5]
Nomination papers are due in the Clerk’s office by 5 p.m. on January 5, 2027.[5] The primary is February 16, 2027, and the election is April 6, 2027.[5]
Bottom Line: The Mayor has made herself the city’s chief policymaker, while state law gives that job to the Common Council
Wisconsin law makes the mayor the city’s chief executive officer, responsible for ensuring ordinances and state laws are enforced and that city officers and employees do their jobs.[23] The same law gives the Common Council “the management and control of the city property, finances, highways, navigable waters, and the public service.”[24] It also gives the Council the power “to act for the government and good order of the city.”[24] The alders, and the residents who serve on the city’s committees, commissions, and boards, are the policymakers. The mayor’s job is to run the city.
City Hall does not work that way today. In my experience covering it, the Mayor and her staff develop policies out of public view and line up enough alders to pass them before introducing the legislation, which the city’s commissions, committees, boards, and Council usually ratify quickly, with public comments limited to three minutes per person. Any alder or committee member who takes the job seriously should object to being told that the Mayor is the city’s chief policymaker.
From where I sit, this is issue number one in the next mayoral election. Madison needs a mayor who will support the city’s committees, commissions, boards, and the Council in making policy, and who will give them what they need to do it, not a mayor who treats them as a rubber stamp for the mayor’s own agenda.
77SquareMiles.com covers the votes, the money, and the process at Madison City Hall that mainstream media misses.
© Alex Saloutos 2026.
Footnotes
[1] City of Madison Clerk, Candidate Filings, accessed September 10, 2026, https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/elections-voting/candidates-campaigns/candidate-filings
[2] Wisconsin State Journal, “Madison mayor’s race goes from 1 to 4 candidates in blink of an eye,” August 27, 2026, https://madison.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/article_bab3457f-a5f8-4bea-99ea-bded28c8d40b.html
[3] Chali Pittman, Isthmus, “A mayor for the people,” September 8, 2026, https://isthmus.com/news/news/a-mayor-for-the-people/
[4] Channel3000, “Madison mayor launches bid for third term,” July 16, 2026, https://www.channel3000.com/news/madison-mayor-launches-bid-for-third-term/article_26feccbf-ec2e-4464-8df6-76bc2ea5567d.html
[5] City of Madison Clerk, Running for Local Office, accessed September 10, 2026, https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/elections-voting/candidates-campaigns/running-for-local-office
[6] Channel3000, “Dane Co. Supervisor April Kigeya stepping down, moving out of district,” December 19, 2025, https://www.channel3000.com/news/dane-co-supervisor-april-kigeya-stepping-down-moving-out-of-district/article_d600098c-1890-4f87-b1bb-3df6f380d553.html
[7] Ballotpedia, “April Kigeya,” accessed September 10, 2026, https://ballotpedia.org/April_Kigeya
[8] Madison365, “April Kigeya announces re-election bid for Dane County Supervisor,” November 3, 2023, https://madison365.com/april-kigeya-announces-re-election-bid-for-dane-county-supervisor/
[9] Just Fly Sports, “Just Fly Performance Podcast Episode 29: Jon Hinds,” undated, https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-29-jon-hinds/
[10] Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, memorandum, “2027 Operating Budget Guidance,” June 9, 2026, https://www.cityofmadison.com/finance/documents/2027/operating/2027OperatingKickOff.pdf
[11] Danielle DuClos and Erin McGroarty, The Cap Times, “Corey Ruiz family speaks on Madison police shooting. ‘They took my baby.’” July 24, 2026, https://captimes.com/news/government/corey-ruiz-family-speaks-on-madison-police-shooting-they-took-my-baby/article_d94b889a-7c51-4525-8181-bb1e3ad58989.html
[12] WMTV, “Madison city crews clear protest encampment, 16 arrested,” August 4, 2026, https://www.wmtv15news.com/2026/08/04/madison-city-crews-move-clear-out-protest-encampment/
[13] Samantha Calderon, Channel3000, “Independent Police Monitor: ‘I will burn this city down’,” August 4, 2026, https://www.channel3000.com/news/independent-police-monitor-i-will-burn-this-city-down/article_a502a933-9d4f-43c6-99bb-3311595946e1.html
[14] WKOW, “Questions emerge over authority, role of Madison’s Independent Police Monitor,” August 6, 2026, https://www.wkow.com/news/questions-emerge-over-authority-role-of-madisons-independent-police-monitor/article_11001e6d-4552-4503-8e32-37121c679ee2.html
[15] City of Madison, Legistar File 92386, https://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7988410&GUID=6D618C28-9FCF-4259-8402-00773301AA85
[16] 77SquareMiles.com, “Madison’s Independent Police Oversight Is Three Days From Being Gutted,” April 18, 2026, https://www.77squaremiles.com/post/madison-s-independent-police-oversight-is-five-days-from-being-gutted
[17] 77SquareMiles.com, “93 Days of Silence, Then One Day’s Notice,” July 23, 2026, https://www.77squaremiles.com/post/93-days-of-silence-then-one-day-s-notice
[18] Channel3000, “Madison Metro Transit faces nearly $6 million budget shortfall,” December 10, 2025, https://www.channel3000.com/news/madison-metro-transit-faces-nearly-6-million-budget-shortfall/article_a0f65f96-2c45-42fb-8d7b-aff4d5b4669f.html
[19] Wis. Stat. 8.11(1)(b), https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/8/11
[20] Jon Hinds, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jonnyhinds/
[21] Satya Rhodes-Conway, “Madison Mayor: Absentee ballot suit is simply about money,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 11, 2026, https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2026/02/11/madison-absentee-ballots-voting-november-2024-taxpayers-lawsuit/88597755007/
[22] Chris Rickert, Wisconsin State Journal, “Madison police officer gets restraining order against city’s police monitor,” September 9, 2026, https://madison.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_071ef36c-1860-411d-91a3-ed921de31f28.html
[23] Wis. Stat. 62.09(8)(a), https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/62/i/09
[24] Wis. Stat. 62.11(5), https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/62/i/11
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