Five weeks from now, on Tuesday, December 15, Waukesha County voters will choose their next county executive. The office is nonpartisan. The choice is not. State Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, and state Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee, are the only candidates on the ballot. Both are conservative Republicans who won reelection on November 3. No other candidates filed, so the November 17 primary was canceled.
The seat opened when County Executive Paul Farrow died July 7 at 61 after a two-year fight with a rare cancer. Farrow led the county since 2015 and chaired the Republican Party of Wisconsin from 2021 to 2022. County Board Chairman Jim Heinrich served as acting executive until the board appointed retired county corporation counsel Tom Farley, who was sworn in July 30. Farley is not running.
The December winner serves only until the April 6, 2027, spring election, when a full four-year term is on the ballot. Nomination papers for that race are due January 5, three weeks later.
Two Conservatives From Lake Country
Kapenga announced first, on July 13, on the Dan O’Donnell Show. He lives in Delafield with his wife, Cari. Born in Zeeland, Michigan, he grew up on a family farm and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He earned a degree in accountancy from Calvin College in 1994. He is a CPA who worked at one of the world’s largest public accounting firms, later worked for a Fortune 50 company, and has owned and sold several businesses. He and Cari own a manufacturing business in Waukesha.
He was first elected to the Assembly in 2010. In July 2015, he won a special election for the 33rd Senate District, the seat Farrow left to become county executive, and has held it since. His peers elected him Senate president from 2020 to 2024. He chaired the Senate Committee on Licensing, Regulatory Reform, State and Federal Affairs, serves as vice chair of the Committee on Government Operations, Labor and Economic Development, and sits on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
“Instead of asking taxpayers for more, I believe we can make county government do more with what it already has,” Kapenga said when he launched his campaign. “If there’s waste, we’ll find it. If there’s fraud, we’ll go after it.”
Neylon, who represents the 15th Assembly District in Pewaukee, Brookfield, and part of the city of Waukesha, announced in early September and has called Farrow a mentor. Born in Elgin, Illinois, he came to Wisconsin to attend Carroll University, graduated in 2008, and stayed. He lives in Pewaukee with his wife, Hannah, and their three children. Before running for office, he worked for Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner in Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C., and served as a legislative aide in the Assembly. Voters first elected him in an April 2013 special election for the Assembly. He is a small business owner who started a commercial window-cleaning company, The Neylon Group, and later became a partner in Starting Point Fitness.
In the Legislature, Neylon was the lead Assembly author of Wisconsin’s REINS Act, signed by Gov. Scott Walker as 2017 Wisconsin Act 57. The law requires legislative approval for agency rules with compliance and implementation costs of $10 million or more over two years. Walker also signed two other bills Neylon authored: the GPS Privacy Act, which makes it a crime to track someone with a GPS device without consent, and the Patent Notification Act, which targets predatory patent-demand letters aimed at Wisconsin businesses. He previously chaired the Assembly Committee on Jobs and the Economy. In the last session, he co-chaired the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, the panel that checks whether state agencies stay within their authority when they write rules.
“Families and businesses make choices every day about what they can afford,” Neylon said in an October 19 campaign release. “County government should bring that same discipline to its budget.” His campaign has also released a video, Keep Waukesha County Winning, paid for by Adam for Waukesha County.
Both men say they will leave the Legislature if they win. Kapenga has said he would resign his Senate seat the day he takes office, likely in January. Neylon has said he would resign from the Assembly. State law does not allow a legislator to hold both jobs. That would open a Republican seat in a Madison now run by Democrats, who hold an 18-15 Senate, a 53-46 Assembly, and the governor’s office. Gov.-elect David Crowley would order the special election to fill it.
Endorsements
On September 4, Wisconsin Family Action PAC endorsed Kapenga for county executive. WFA president Daniel Degner called him “a strong leader who puts the interests of those he serves over his own” and cited his “vision for church-state partnership” on addiction and foster care. I have not found a comparable public list from Kapenga’s campaign, or other group, union, or sheriff endorsements for him that I could independently confirm.
Neylon’s campaign, Adam for Waukesha County, released a long list of supporters on November 10. It is the campaign’s announcement, not a separate confirmation from each endorser, and it is the most complete public roster in the race so far.
The release names former Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Sen. Pat Testin, and state Reps. Barb Dittrich, Scott Allen, Rob Brooks, and Jessie Rodriguez, along with former Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, former Assembly Majority Leader Mickey Foti, former Wisconsin Economic Development director Mark Hogan, and former Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel.
Local officials on the list include Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman, former Waukesha County Sheriff Arnie Moncada, former County Board Chairman Paul Decker, Muskego Mayor Rick Petfalski, Lannon Village President Patrick Yates, Town of Delafield Chairman Ed Kranick, City of Waukesha Alderperson Doreen Wigderson, Oconomowoc Alderman Lou Kowieski, County Board Supervisors Christine Howard, Steve Styza, Wayne Euclide, Jim Batzko, Thomas Schellinger, Jack Nissen, and Mike Crowley, and former judges Joseph Wimmer and Mark Bohren. Amy Farrow, the late county executive’s wife, is named as a supporter.
No County Sales Tax
Waukesha County is one of two Wisconsin counties, along with Winnebago, with no county sales tax on top of the state’s 5 percent rate. Farrow proposed a half-percent tax, then declared the plan “officially dead” on January 28, 2025. Both candidates oppose a county sales tax. In 2024, Kapenga broke with Farrow on the proposal, writing that if it passed, elected officials would be “more beholden to the bureaucracy than to the residents they work for.”
Key Dates and How to Vote
The first scheduled joint appearance is Thursday, November 12, from 8:30 to 10 a.m., at a Waukesha County Business Alliance candidate forum at the Chortek Training Center, 2717 N. Grandview Blvd., Suite 300, in Waukesha. The listing says it is free for Alliance members.
Election Day is Tuesday, December 15. Nomination papers for the April 6, 2027, full-term election are due January 5.
This is not a race to sleep on just because it falls two weeks before Christmas. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Photo ID is required. Voters can request a mail absentee ballot at MyVote.wi.gov. Regular mail requests must reach the municipal clerk by 5 p.m. Thursday, December 10. In-person absentee voting at clerk’s offices can begin December 1 and run through Sunday, December 13, with hours set by each municipality.
