State Sen. Melissa Agard skated to victory Tuesday night in a special election to become Dane County’s next executive, but will need to submit nomination papers by Dec. 1 for the upcoming April election. It’s unclear if her opponent, Dana Pellebon, will run again.
“At this point, I’m not saying much of anything other than I’m super proud of what it is that we have done, and then we’ll go from there,” Pellebon, RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center director, told Isthmus after Agard declared victory at 9:15 p.m. “Here’s what I know. I’m going to work tomorrow and I’m going to go and celebrate the life of my grandmother. That is the only thing that I’m focused on at this point.”
Pellebon added that she was grateful to her supporters for their engagement in the election and said she feels “very good about the fact that I did get so much of the electorate.”
Agard won her race with 61% of the vote. “I’m honored and humbled, frankly, by tonight’s results,” Agard said during her acceptance speech at an election gathering at the Embassy Suites in downtown Madison. “But election night is not an end, it is a beginning. Folks, we’ve got to govern, and it’s time to take what we’ve said on the campaign trail and turn those words into action.”
In a press briefing after her acceptance speech, Agard said that she’ll immediately get to work on implementing the budget recently passed by the county board and signed by County Executive Jamie Kuhn, who has been serving in the position since Joe Parisi retired as county executive in May. She also noted that the results of the presidential and state legislative races will be important in “knowing how we go forward.”
Agard and Pellebon both identified as progressive candidates. Agard served for two terms on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, 2010-14, and Pellebon served one term, 2021-23. Agard has also served as a state lawmaker, both in the state Assembly and state Senate, for 11 years.
As county executive, Agard will oversee a large bureaucracy that includes human and health services, public safety, and transportation. She also has the power to veto legislation proposed by the county board.
Pellebon and Agard were the top vote-getters in the Aug. 13 primary, which weeded out Madison Ald. Regina Vidaver and Dane County Office of Equity and Inclusion Director Wes Sparkman. Agard’s strong lead in the primary — she took 57% of the votes compared to Pellebon’s 17% — made Pellebon the underdog in the general election. Though Pellebon pledged to fundraise more and narrow the gap, candidate finance forms covering July 30 to Oct. 21 show that Agard raised more than four times what Pellebon did during that period — $55,250 vs. $14,085.
Speaking from Agard’s watch party, Sarah Barry, an administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, said she believes Agard’s experience as a legislator will allow her to advocate successfully at the state level. Barry said Agard is poised to do strong work in the areas of human services and housing.
“She has demonstrated great leadership in the state Senate, in the Assembly, and as minority leader in the Senate, and I think that she has a great passion for the county,” Barry said.
