MONROE — Kelda Roys’ statewide campaign hit Monroe on Thursday evening, and the 26th District State Senator and one of six Democratic primary candidates for governor wasted no time in taking on President Trump, along with potential Republican opponent Tom Tiffany.
Roys has represented Wisconsin’s 26th Senate District since 2021, and serves on the Joint Committee on Finance in Madison. She came to downtown Monroe for an appearance Thursday, May 28.
“This is a different kind of leadership moment,” she said during her appearance at Payne’s Family CoffeeHaus & OddiTeas, 921 15th Avenue, just off the downtown square. “Change is on the horizon, if we don’t screw it up.”
Previously serving two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly (2009–2013), she is an attorney, former executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin; and CEO of the real estate brokerage OpenHomes.
This is her second run for governor — she previously finished third in the 2018 Democratic primary. Roys runs in a purple state with no incumbent atop the ticket for the first time since 2010.
Roys represents Madison in the Senate — launching her campaign for Evers’ job in September 2025 on a platform heavy on public school funding, defending reproductive freedom, and opposing federal Republican policies.
She praised Evers on Thursday for navigating the party at the nadir of heavy GOP control statewide in recent years, acting as a “goalie” for some of the opposing party’s worst ideas. But she said the state now needs some offense on the Democratic side.
Nowhere is that clearer, she said, than the last minute, mid-century redistricting and gerrymandering by Republicans to hold onto power nationwide even as the US president’s power slips amid soaring inflation; gas prices and a highly unpopular war with Iran.
“Gerrymandering hasn’t helped us in a lot of ways,” she told a small crowd of Democrats and supporters, wearing a seafoam-colored dress, and stressing her rural heritage and advocacy for working people despite her education and Madison lefty pedigree. “Why can’t Wisconsin have nice things? Why can’t America have nice things?”
One of those “nice things” she’s stressing is healthcare and among her campaign ideas are plan to by allow any resident or business to buy into the same health insurance state employees by allowing any Wisconsinite or business to buy into the same health insurance plan that covers state employees.
