The last time a Republican was mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was Sherburn M. Becker, who served from 1906 to 1908, and the last time a Republican ran for that office was when Bob Donovan ran in 2016 and 2022. It's a story repeated over and over again in blue cities across America.
In New York, Michael Bloomberg was the last Republican elected. That was two decades ago, and he left the Republican Party in 2007 (he'd been a Democrat until 2001 and returned to the Democratic Party in 2018). In Los Angeles, the last Republican mayor was Richard Riordan, who was reelected in 1997. L.A.'s mayoral races are technically non-partisan, but no prominent Republicans have run for office since. The last Republican mayor of Chicago was William Hale Thompson, who served from 1915-1923 and again from 1927-1931. Like L.A. and Milwaukee, no Republican has tried to win Chicago again.
I'm going to circle back to New York, where Republican Curtis Sliwa is at least making an effort to run for mayor this year, something that isn't happening elsewhere. Unfortunately, Sliwa doesn't have what it takes to win this year, and it looks like Zohran Mamdani is going to be the next leader of the Big Apple (God help us all).
The same cannot be said for Minneapolis, where criminals who vandalized and robbed more than 125 cars were not pursued by police due to city policies that prohibit police pursuits for property crimes. No Republican is running for mayor, and it looks like Somalian Omar Fateh will be the next mayor.
As I noted on X, refusing to enforce property crime laws is a choice, and one the Democrats keep making. Someone else responded to me:
As do the city's voters. https://t.co/P1lXSnKSYO
— Avi Woolf, Wilderness Conservative🐺 (@AviWoolf) August 15, 2025
And he's right, to a certain extent.
But -- as illustrated above -- voters can only vote from the choices they are given. Like Milwaukee, L.A., and Chicago, Minneapolis hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1961 (unless you count Richard M. Erdall, who served for one day in 1973, and I don't). This year, no Republicans are running for office.
How can we expect our cities to change when voters are forced to select from the same crop of failed Democrats?
I know, I know -- many conservatives will tell me no Republican can ever win in a city and we shouldn't even try. To that, I suggest they look at what's happened with public schools, universities, and Hollywood -- places where conservatives have ceded almost all ground to the Left. Where conservatives refuse to even try to compete, Democrats win, and disaster follows.
It seems voters are starting to realize this.
Earlier today, my colleague Doug told you that things are very, very bad for the Democratic Party. Across the board -- in red, blue, and swing states -- Democrats lost ground to Republicans between 2020 and 2024. Given the insane nature of the Democratic Party, this trend doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon. Obama lackey Ben Rhodes believes guys like Zohran Mamdani are the future of the Democratic Party, which is the most welcome news the GOP could ever ask for prior to the midterms.
On top of all of this, President Trump has made the Democratic Party come out in favor of violent crime and the criminals plaguing our cities. Since the announcement of the federal takeover of D.C., crime has plummeted:
DC crime since the announcement of federal control versus the 7 days prior:
— DC Police Union (@DCPoliceUnion) August 18, 2025
Robbery ⬇️46%
ADW ⬇️6%
Carjacking ⬇️83%
Car Theft ⬇️21%
Violent Crime ⬇️22%
Property Crime ⬇️6%
All Crimes⬇️8%
While federal assistance gives us a boost, we must repeal the misguided Comprehensive…
Who benefits most from reduced crime? The Black and Hispanic voters living in cities like Milwaukee, Chicago, L.A., and D.C. In all cities, the majority of violent crime victims are young Black males. Democrats conveniently ignore this, and instead lament the fact that tough-on-crime policies target the Black and brown' youth who commit these crimes.
Grocery stores in crime-ridden cities close up shop rather than deal with shoplifting, robberies, and vagrants, depriving those residents of food sources and jobs. Home values plummet, and blight becomes the norm.
President Trump threw a spotlight on these problems -- problems that persist in blue cities and blue states run by Democrats -- and the Democrats are telling voters they just need to deal with it because President Trump is a fascist. It's political suicide and breathtaking in its callousness.
Voters will see this and respond accordingly.
So now more than ever, Republicans need to start taking cities seriously and they need to start putting up good candidates and putting money into those races. In New York, the people who support Zohran Mamdani are largely White, rich Leftists. Working- and middle-class voters, as well as minorities, opted for Cuomo because they'd suffer the most under a Mamdani administration.
And they're not alone: in blue cities across the nation, Democrats are telling voters they just have to live with crappy, dangerous parts of their cities because it's not 'Fallujah'-- and it's not. D.C.'s murder rate is about four times higher than that of the Iraqi city. The opportunity to begin making inroads with voters who are fed up with living amid crime and squalor is there if the GOP is bold enough to take it.
Will this result in overnight wins? No. Of course not. Will it introduce a red wave in cities? Probably not. But it will show voters that there are options besides voting for the same failed party and its dangerous ideals over and over again. Given the decline of the Democratic Party across the nation, it can't hurt give voters a real choice.
