Satya Rhodes-Conway

Satya Rhodes-Conway (born November 3, 1971) is an American politician and the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. She was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2023. She previously served on the Madison Common Council between 2007 and 2013. She is the first out lesbian elected as a mayor in Wisconsin, and only the second woman to become mayor of Madison. Early life and career Satya Rhodes-Conway was born in 1971, in Española, New Mexico, and raised in Ithaca, New York. She attended Smith College and earned a master’s degree from the University of California, Irvine. Rhodes-Conway moved to Madison, Wisconsin, around 2000. She worked at the State Environmental Resource Center, as a senior associate with the University of Wisconsin's Center on Wisconsin Strategy, and served on several municipal committees, as chair of the Long Range Metro Transit Ad Hoc Planning Committee, and a subcommittee member of the Commission on the Environment. Rhodes-Conway became managing director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Mayors Innovation Project in 2005. Political career Rhodes-Conway has been endorsed by the Green Party of the United States, the Progressive Dane party and the Democratic Party in bids for political office. She began campaigning for Brian Benford's open seat on the Madison Common Council in December 2006, and was one of nine new alders elected to the Madison Common Council in 2007. Rhodes-Conway announced in November 2012 that she would not run for reelection, and stepped down from the position upon the end of her third term in April 2013. She was succeeded in office by Larry Palm. 2019 mayoral campaign Rhodes-Conway announced that she would run for the mayorship in May 2018. She and incumbent mayor Paul Soglin were the top two finishers in a primary held on February 19, 2019. The 2019 mayoral primary was Madison's most expensive, as six candidates raised a total of $453,365; $83,331 of that total was raised by Rhodes-Conway's campaign. Rhodes-Conway finished second, 323 votes behind Soglin, to advance to the general election.