
In conversation with Joel Brennan, Democratic candidate for governor
Wed Jun 24, 2026
Joel Brennan is one of now six candidates running to be the Democratic nominee for governor. He was the secretary of the Department of Administration for much of Tony Evers’ first term as governor, and before that, was the president and CEO of Discovery World for more than a decade in Milwaukee.
It was around that time that I met Brennan, when I was a reporter at the Milwaukee Business Journal, and wrote a few stories about developments happening at Discovery World, and talked to him for an interview. I find him to be a compelling individual and an intriguing candidate. Far from the flashiest or most well-known, Brennan could prove to be a dark horse in the race, as his record of experience lends itself well to the ability to take on role of governor.
In this conversation, we talked about what he’s learned over the past few months while running for governor (his first time running for elected office since losing a State Senate race in 2003), what he would want to do if elected, how he’d approach working with the state legislature, and much more.
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