Milwaukee City Wire

Alex Lasry is running for Ron Johnson's Senate seat in 2022, but the 33-year-old was surprised when he relocated to Milwaukee and discovered it was just like any other city.

“I didn’t know much about Milwaukee," said Lasry, the Milwaukee Bucks senior vice president. "I knew the Brewers, I knew the Packers were in Wisconsin,” The Intercept reported. 

Lasry said before relocating to Milwaukee to work for the basketball team that his father owns, he had only been to Wisconsin one other time — in 2008 when he was involved in canvassing for Hilary Clinton.

“I came in with, kind of, just trying to keep an open mind about the city,” Lasry told the Jewish Museum Milwaukee audience last July, the news media reported. “The only places I had lived in prior were New York, Philly, and D.C. — so kind of bigger East Coast cities. And when I came here, I think what most surprised me about Milwaukee is the fact that Milwaukee has all the same things as any city, especially any big city has.”

Lasry, 33, said he didn’t think smaller Midwestern cities were anything like cities like Chicago, Ill.

“Everyone’s always like, Chicago’s like the New York of the Midwest,” Lasry said. “And what I kind of learned was, Milwaukee has everything. It’s got a great local art scene, it’s got a great local food scene, two major sports teams that are killing everyone else — Packers if you want to include them, and you’ve got three. You’ve got a great bar scene, great universities. It just kind of had everything that you would want.”

Lasry said Milwaukee is a “nicely kept secret in the Midwest.”

“And I think it was just kind of our hope that we would be able to help be a part of showing everyone what I was able to see about Milwaukee,” Lasry said.

Lasry is running for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. Johnson has not indicated if he will run for a third term. Democrat and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson is also running for the seat.