David Bowen, Executive Director of Wisconsin Voices: 'As a Progressive, I think we can build coalitions beyond the political divide.'

×

Expand

Photo by Tom Jenz

David Bowen - Wisconsin Voices

David Bowen, Executive Director, Wisconsin Voices

At 38, David Bowen has already worn a lot of hats in Milwaukee public service, community organizer, county supervisor, state lawmaker, and now, executive director of one of the state’s most influential progressive organizations. He’s young, but he’s been in the fight a long time.

Bowen first found his voice as a teenager speaking out on issues in his school. By the time he was 24, he’d been elected to the Milwaukee County Board. At 27, he moved up to the State Assembly, where he served four terms fighting for public health, education, economic and racial justice. Today, he’s leading Wisconsin Voices, a group that brings together dozens of nonprofits working to engage voters and push for change at the community level.

When we met recently, Bowen was settled into his new office inside the old Eaton Building on North 27th Street, a landmark with a mix of history and hope. We talked in the seventh-floor conference room with tall windows and cork boards pinned with strategies.

He’s got the presence of someone you notice when he walks into a room, lean and confident, with the easy charm of someone used to speaking up. Powerfully fit and with a personality to match, his speaking style rides a rollercoaster of emotions and draws in the listener. I was thinking he had been in a lot of living rooms and street corners, not just committee hearings.

As the handsome son of Jamaican immigrants, Bowen could be starring in his own movie as an influential and involved Black leader. These days, he’s focused on building bridges between organizations, between communities, even between people who might not vote the same way. “We’ve got more in common than we think,” he said, “but I like to do the work of pulling us together.”

Tell me about your background. Where you grew up, your parents, neighborhoods, community and your high school education.

My parents were from Jamaica, and they moved to Milwaukee for economic opportunity. Eventually, they bought their own home on 44th and Hadley in the Sherman Park neighborhood. They were proud of that achievement. My mom was a nursing assistant and worked in senior care. My dad worked in the Menomonee Valley at a meatpacking plant. I went to Lloyd Street Global Education Elementary School. Then I went to Morris Middle School for the Gifted and Talented. 

You were a community organizer at a young age, even in high school. What did that consist of?

I went to Bradley Tech High School on the South Side. I wanted to be an architect. I became an activist and advocate, engaged in the community through numerous programs around college preparation and community social reform. I joined the Urban Underground organization and participated in my very first protest. In about 2001, members of the Ku Klux Klan had come to Milwaukee to deliver a message of hate. We did a counter protest that supported diversity and inclusion. We were only about 14 years old, but we outnumbered the Klan members, and we were louder. That started me on the road to activism through the Urban Underground organization. Recently, I had my 20th class reunion at Bradley Tech, wonderful experience. 

For college, you attended UWM. I understand you were the program director at Milwaukee Urban Underground, a local organization. What is Urban Underground and what does it do? 

Urban Underground was a youth development organization on the north side of the city. Reggie Moore and my sister, Sharlen Moore, started the Milwaukee organization, and it engaged youth in all types of MPS and suburban school districts. Reggie and Sharlen developed us students to be leaders. We were recruiting young people to be leaders in economic justice, health, and in neighborhoods. We found value in youth human capital. Several of those young people went on to be elected officials and policy makers. 

You took the long path to graduate from UWM, correct?

Yes, because I got involved in public service, nonprofits, and then later as an elected official when I worked on juvenile and adult correction issues. I eventually graduated from UWM last year with a degree in community engagement and educational policy. 

Take me through your career path. You have been in public service for most of your career, I think.

While working at Urban Underground, I had a pretty good reputation for activism and social issues. In 2012 when I was 24, people encouraged me to run for the Milwaukee County 10th District Supervisor office. I put together a young, rag tag team, and we knocked on doors, and we won. As a County Supervisor, I learned how to work across the aisles and develop coalitions. I was the lead author of a living wage bill requiring all companies contracted to do business with Milwaukee County to be paid a minimum of $11.32 an hour and indexed annually to inflation. We also provided investments in youth development employment. We helped sustain our County transit system, the busses, and we gave young people free access to the transit system for the summers. 

In 2014, when Democratic incumbent Sandy Pasch announced that she would not seek re-election in the state legislature’s 10th Assembly District, you ran for that office. 

Yes, again, my election team worked hard, and we won the vote for that state office. I was re-elected in 2016, 2018 and 2020 without facing an opponent.

When you were serving in the State Assembly, you led one of the most diverse districts in the state, from the white, east side upper middle class Shorewood to the working class Black neighborhoods toward the North Side. What was that experience like for you?

One side of my district was predominantly poor and working-class Black neighborhoods. The other side was predominantly white folks doing well economically. But I developed coalitions around food security, public school education, and the juvenile justice system. I think of myself as a convener. I am good at building consensus.  

In 2022, you declined to run again for the 10th Assembly District office. Why not?

I became the vice chair of the state of Wisconsin Democratic Party. I had that leadership position for four years, and I built up a network of folks all over the state. I stepped down from my Assembly seat and ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2022, but my mother was dying of cancer, and she died in the middle of the race, and I stepped down. 

I’m sorry. I did not realize that. In 2023, you ran for an open seat on the Milwaukee Common Council, but you lost by 17 votes. But then, your next career step was as a lobbyist, correct?

I served as the State Advocacy Director for AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons. I helped realign their agenda and strategies to focus on simpler issues, for instance, health security, financial security, livable communities and general affordability for seniors. We addressed the vulnerability of seniors who are often targeted for phone and email scams, and we contributed to the passage of several bills signed by the Governor.

You were recently appointed as executive director of Wisconsin Voices, a statewide non-profit organization headquartered in Milwaukee. I understand that Wisconsin Voices is a Progressive organization “dedicated to advancing democracy.” What are the principles and goals? And what exactly is a Progressive in terms of politics?

I am a pragmatic Progressive. A Progressive pushes the envelope slightly beyond the traditional liberal position in terms of what underserved communities need. The Progressive position is to push innovative approaches to government sector solutions vs the traditional Llberal approach. 

Let’s say I own a Milwaukee business, 100 or so employees, and I lean toward being conservative. What can you as a Progressive do for me?

Help provide you with competent workers. Right now, you and I are sitting in the Century City 30th Street corridor where area residents are on the lower economic scale. This was once a bustling economic center of business with large scale employment. The high paying factory jobs no longer exist here and in other parts of Milwaukee. These companies that left Milwaukee—beer companies, A.O. Smith, Briggs & Stratton, Allis Chalmers and others—once invested in the lives of their workers, took care of them. 

Good companies want good employees. If people are not properly educated and with a work ethic, then the company suffers.

And the community and economy will also not benefit. Workers, managers, business owners, and big companies are all tied together. We have to prioritize the benefits of human capital.

Wisconsin Voices unifies a dynamic network of progressive nonprofits in Wisconsin around achieving shared goals to build a better democracy. How do you go about circling the wagons, so to speak? What does Wisconsin Voices do on a day-to-day basis?

Wisconsin Voices is currently re-establishing connections with our partners and with the pro-democracy space. We want more people to engage in future elections and be a part of our democracy. It is important that we support neighborhood and community groups who do the work on the streets. We create a resource for smaller organizations that we partner with. We partner with grassroots organizations who incorporate as 501c3 nonprofits, but we also are involved with grass-seed organizations.

What are grass-seed organizations?

They are soon to be 501c’s. For example, Vaun Mayes and his ComForce MKE, who organizes to help Black folks in distressed areas. Lupus Has No Face with Savannah Burks, Share the Love with Veronica Stratton, and MKE Youth for Peace with Rhonda Stovall are all doing work with their unique networks. We coordinate and train grass-seed organizations, as well as larger nonprofits, to build their capacity to engage their networks and neighborhoods around civic engagement.

How is Wisconsin Voices funded?

Through grants and folks on a national level that make sure citizens are engaged every election cycle. But we work year-round to keep people engaged regardless of when an election is held.

Sounds like an exciting job for you. Is it?

Definitely. And there is a lot of building I get to do. In the past as an elected official, I’ve been an architect of policy, and now I get to be an architect of organizations.

Changing lanes, I am working on a story about the lack of a current Democrat agenda, the lack of leadership. The message and agenda have been mostly negative, just criticizing Trump and conservatives. In other words, what is positive about the Democratic Party? I recently talked with Mayor Johnson about this subject. He told me, and I quote, “The independent vote is so important in presidential and governor elections. You need to get those folks in the middle to vote for you. You stand on your values and promote those values. I think that the United States is at its best when we are center-left.” Do you agree?

It can be, but it’s also about coalition building. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all built coalitions. The concept of “50 plus 1” wins elections. You need to build a winning coalition. You and I are speaking shortly after Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral primary election. He is a Democratic Socialist, and he built a winning coalition. As a Progressive, I think we can build coalitions beyond traditional political divides. In my political career, I have built coalitions that include independents and right-leaning policymakers. All political factions should be at the table.

For more, visit wisconsinvoices.org.