Steven Olikara forms ‘exploratory committee’ for 2022 U.S. Senate race

On Feb 15, 2022

Can a self-described “political entrepreneur” who founded a nonprofit devoted to “post-partisan political cooperation” find running room in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin?

We’re about to find out.

Steven Olikara, 31, founder and former chief executive of the Millennial Action Project, announced Tuesday that he’s forming an exploratory committee to run in next year’s race.

If he goes all in, he’ll run as a Democrat.

“Our job is to elevate a new kind of politics,” Olikara said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “In my view the current political system is unsustainable. It profits on dehumanization.

“I don’t think that’s going to work for Wisconsin and I don’t think it works for the very idea of a diverse democracy. Our mission is to elevate a more inclusive, compassionate and honest form of politics and bring people together who have been left out of the system in a new coalition for dignity.

“If we can build the coalition, I’m confident we can be successful.”

Olikara appears poised to join an already crowded field eager to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who hasn’t announced if he’ll seek a third term.

“I think Ron Johnson has been a perpetrator of the politics of hate,” Olikara said. “He has become intoxicated with this broken political system. So, yes, we want to change an incumbent politician but our mission is larger than that. He is a primary actor in a broken system.”

Democrats now in the race include state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, Alex Lasry, who is on leave from his executive job with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Wausau radiologist Gillian Battino.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is among other Democrats who are considering jumping into the contest.

Olikara, whose parents are immigrants from India, is a Brookfield native who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012.

The next year he started Millennial Action Project. Over two years, he hosted “Red and Blue Dialogues” across Wisconsin, conversations involving people from across the political spectrum.

“I think Wisconsin over the past decade has become a symbol of a trench warfare politics in the country, and at the same time we’re a tipping point state,” he said. “That’s why our mission is so important. I believe we can be a model of inclusion in politics. We have that in us.”

Beginning Friday in Milwaukee, Olikara will embark on what he’s calling a “Dignity Tour,” listening sessions with “Wisconsinites from all walks of life.”

“Our goal as we launch this exploratory committee is to truly listen and invite Wisconsinites to be co-authors of this journey to be part of crafting our dignity agenda from the ground up,” Olikara said. “The North Star for all of our issues will be human dignity.”