The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history, and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is making sure voters connect him to the win. A 2013 post from his own account shows he once had a much more suspicious view of a night at the ballpark.
Hours after the Brewers finished off the Tampa Bay Rays in five games on October 28, Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, posted a celebration video with the caption, “We worked together to keep the @Brewers in Wisconsin. And now, the Brew Crew won the World Series y’all!” The next day he issued an “(UN)OFFICIAL NOTICE” excusing Milwaukeeans from “all Friday, October 30 obligations” to join the championship celebration.
On September 3, 2013, Crowley wrote this on the same @DavidCrowleyWI account he uses today as county executive: “So a group of people & I walk into a @Brewers game. Guess which one gets patted down entering? I even watched the gate afterwards #crazy”
The post came back around this week after New Fashioned Conservatives shared it and wrote that “Crowley used to think the Brewers organization was racist.” Crowley never spelled it out, but the implication is hard to miss: he walked in with a group, decided he was the one picked out for a pat-down, and then stood watching the gate to prove his point.
It fits a pattern. In a December 13, 2021 thread on Milwaukee County Parks funding, Crowley wrote that park revenue comes from “golf, the marina, and beer gardens,” activities “traditionally and predominantly supported by white users,” adding, “This racial inequity is born from a history of systemic racism & injustice.”
Now Crowley wants credit for the ballpark deal. In an October 16 post, he said he “worked alongside” Gov. Tony Evers, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and “a bipartisan group of lawmakers” to keep the team in Milwaukee through 2050. The record is less tidy. In June 2023, Crowley signed a County Board resolution opposing county tax levy dollars for long-term ballpark renovations. When Republican lawmakers proposed a local share, he said the plan “sticks it to Milwaukee County taxpayers.”
The final package, 2023 Wisconsin Act 40, put $365.8 million in state money into American Family Field, plus $67.5 million each from the city and the county. The county’s share comes out of a sales tax Crowley pushed for, which rose from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent on January 1, 2024.
Wisconsin voters pick their next governor on November 3. Brewers fans will celebrate the players who won it on Friday. Crowley will be celebrating too, from a very different seat than the one he described in 2013.
