In early 2022, Marina ran for Mayor in the special election to replace Tom Barrett. This was the platform she ran on for mayor, and it remains the platform she’s fighting for as an organizer, community leader and Alderwoman.

We need a bold vision for the future of Milwaukee.

As a lifelong Milwaukeean, I’ve watched our city grow. But as it’s grown, we’ve failed to address many of the biggest challenges in front of us. We need to bring our city together as one Milwaukee, where everyone has access to opportunity. I’m running for mayor because I believe that if we make the tough decisions and fight for bold solutions to our challenges, we can create a brighter future where all of Milwaukee can thrive. 

I’ve been in local elected leadership for nearly 18 years, and I’m proud of what we've been able to accomplish for this community. I’ve delivered on a progressive environmental agenda, including a GreenPrint for the county, I’ve increased funding for parks and outdoor recreation, and I’ve fought to expand access to voting across Milwaukee. My guiding principle has always been to fight for a more just, more inclusive Milwaukee where everyone is welcome. 

But I’ll be the first to say we have more work to do. Today, far too often one's zip code determines their opportunity to succeed. This doesn’t change without hard work, but Milwaukee is a city built on determination. As the daughter of a Serbian immigrant, I know the value of hard work and I won’t stop until everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

I’m an organizer at heart and I know we can find solutions by building coalitions, being willing to listen, and acknowledging the problems our neighbors are facing. That’s how we can create lasting change in Milwaukee.

As a mom, I think of my children first, and as mayor, I’ll work to create a future where every child in our city has the opportunity to achieve their dreams. By investing in people we can create higher wages, we can invest in our public schools, and we can break down barriers that are dividing us.

My policy platform is more than just a collection of ideas, it’s a bold roadmap for what we can achieve as a city — together. 

PLATFORM SECTIONS (click on any section to jump directly there)

• Public Safety

• COVID-19 Pandemic Response

• Support Working Families

• Public Education

• Climate Justice

• Defending Democracy

• Jobs and Small Business

What I Believe

As a mother, I’m appalled by the rise in violent crime in our city. No matter where you live, we all deserve safe neighborhoods where our children can learn and play without fear. Without a doubt, we need a well-run police force to keep our communities safe. A trusting partnership based on a community policing model must continue to be built. But we also know that police alone are not enough, we need to focus on the root causes of violence in our communities. It’s our responsibility to end housing instability, economic injustice, and lack of access to quality health care.

What I’ll Do

• Implement Milwaukee’s “Blueprint for Peace”. On Day 1 I will direct my Administration to accelerate putting into place Milwaukee’s Blueprint for Peace, a unifying vision and overarching plan for working in a more coordinated manner to advance public safety.

• Fully fund the Office of Violence Prevention. As Alderwoman, I led the charge to invest $16.8 million in Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention, the largest investment to date. As Mayor, I’ll continue that investment and ensure the funds are used effectively to make our communities safer.

• Focus on the root causes of violence like a lack of jobs and affordable housing. As Mayor, I have bold solutions for our city that will ensure that every Milwaukee resident can thrive. Only then can we truly prevent violence rather than simply reacting to it.

• Replace the officers we’ve lost over the course of the pandemic to retirement and resignation. For years, Republicans in the legislature slashed funding, including massive cuts to shared revenue in the past decade, making it more difficult to maintain a quality police force. As Mayor, I’ll change that and ensure that our new officers are well-trained in de-escalation and a community policing approach.

• Curb reckless driving by cutting red tape to redesign our roads to encourage safe driving, providing universal drivers education at Milwaukee public high schools, and ensuring MPD is equipped to enforce the traffic laws we have on the books.

What I Believe

The continued spread of COVID-19 in Milwaukee County is deeply concerning. But thankfully, we now have the tools we need to combat this virus while keeping kids in classrooms and businesses open. Slowing the spread of COVID-19 is not just a moral imperative, it’s a racial justice issue, as COVID-19 has continued to disproportionately impact Milwaukee’s Black and brown communities. For the vaccinated and boosted, fighting COVID-19 will require vigilance but with proper testing and masks should not require a full disruption of daily life. For the unvaccinated, COVID-19 remains a mortal threat. We must do all we can to get all Milwaukee residents vaccinated and boosted.

What I’ll Do

• #MaskUp to Keep Businesses and Schools Open. As Mayor, I’ll follow the science, not the politics to keep us safe and keep businesses and schools open. When COVID is surging we must use all the tools at our disposal, including requiring masks in indoor spaces and having free, high-quality masks available for all Milwaukeeans. 

• Incentivize Getting Vaccinated or Boosted by offering $100 to anyone who does either. There’s no doubt that vaccines are our most effective tool for fighting COVID-19 and that boosters are particularly effective against new variants. I would also require all city employees to receive boosters to be considered fully vaccinated.

• Free At-Home Tests for All. My plan will allow Milwaukee residents to pick up free at-home tests at public libraries and other public buildings across the city. We’ll also work to expand the hours and locations of testing sites.

What I Believe

As the mother of two toddlers, it wasn’t long ago that I experienced the challenges of childbirth and raising a newborn. I know how critical this time is for a child’s development, a mother’s healing, and a family’s opportunity to bond. I also know that access to affordable, high-quality child care is a powerful economic engine. Milwaukee should be a leader, not a follower, when it comes to implementing bold, innovative policies to help families succeed. That’s the approach I’ve taken in my nearly 18 years as a local leader, and it’s the approach I would take as Milwaukee's mayor.

What I’ll Do

• Provide City of Milwaukee employees with 12 weeks of paid parental leave, regardless of gender. By setting a high standard locally, we can also increase pressure for a federal paid leave policy to give every new parent in America the same opportunity. Until the federal government makes paid leave a priority, we need to take bold action at the local level to help families succeed.

• Expand access to affordable, high-quality child care. As Alderwoman I successfully passed a proposal that would expand the number of childcare providers in Milwaukee by providing additional child care training for young men of color and provide grants and support for child care providers across the city that will allow them to expand access and reduce costs. As Mayor, I would work to double down on this investment so that we can attract and retain great talent in Milwaukee. 

• Eliminate Lead Pipes. Every Milwaukeean deserves a safe, quality home to live in that has clean, safe drinking water and is lead free. As Alderwoman I directed $3.2 million in federal pandemic relief funds to eliminate lead pipes throughout the city. As Mayor, I’ll finish the job and continue to invest in lead pipe removal until they are out of our city.

• Addressing Milwaukee's housing crisis: Adopt the Community Development Alliance plan to invest in Black, Latino, and low-income homeownership by adding units, utilizing anti-displacement tools, increasing the number of rentals for low-income residents, and creating a fund for affordable housing developers in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods.

What I Believe

As a parent and an MPS graduate, I know firsthand that a strong Milwaukee starts with strong public schools that produce outstanding graduates. We need our public schools to be properly funded, we need teachers who are supported, and we need to attract and retain the best talent for our kids. I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of the majority of the Milwaukee School Board and as Mayor I’ll be the champion that our students and teachers need. Every student, every day, deserves a chance to succeed.

What I’ll Do

• Create a universal pre-K pilot to begin the process of moving Milwaukee towards universal access to high-quality pre-K which research has shown can greatly improve a child’s chance to graduate from both high school and college.

• Expand access to high-quality child care by creating new pipelines of child care talent and providing grants and support for child care providers across Milwaukee so they can expand access and lower costs.

• Invest in before and after school programs so that students can enrich their learning with opportunities outside of the classroom and lower the burden on parents to find before and after school care.

• Offer free public drivers education programs at Milwaukee high schools so that all parents can have access to a free option for their children to learn quality driving skills and help keep our streets safer and reduce reckless driving.

• Expand the Milwaukee Community Schools Partnership so that more of our schools are able to offer wraparound services such as mental health counselors and culturally responsive teaching so that students, parents and teachers can work together to ensure every student can succeed.

What I Believe

As a mother of two young children, I'm concerned about what the future holds for our children and grandchildren. The climate crisis presents a grave threat to our health and safety, and I have a plan to make sure our city's future includes clean air, water, and a stable climate. It starts with committing Milwaukee to drastically increasing the city's renewable energy use, improving conservation efforts, and promoting better public transportation. As County Supervisor, I authored the Greenprint legislation, a comprehensive roadmap to a more sustainable county. As Alderwoman, I authored legislation to use federal ARPA funds to increase bike lanes and enhance our city’s tree canopy in order to improve energy justice and researched providing city sponsored compost to all residents. Those are the kind of bold solutions you can expect from me as Mayor.

What I'll Do

• The climate crisis poses grave risk to the health and safety of all Milwaukeeans. Milwaukee is the 15th fastest-warming city in the U.S and Wisconsin is expected to face an increase in extreme drought by 2050. I'll declare a climate crisis to address the severity of this crisis and mobilize as many resources as possible.

• Expand renewable energy: Milwaukee is committed to sourcing 25% of its energy from renewable sources. Unfortunately we're not currently on target to meet the mark. I'll work with the city and community partners to press WE Energies to rapidly develop their renewable energy capacity.

• Grow good-paying green jobs in Milwaukee. As the climate crisis worsens, there will be plenty of opportunities for good paying jobs for all Milwaukeeans. I'll partner with labor unions, worker training organizations, and educational institutions to develop better career options.

What I Believe

Our democracy is a sacred right and our vote is our voice. As Mayor, I will defend our local democracy against constant attacks by Republicans in Madison and Washington, DC. I believe that voting should be easy and convenient, and our democracy works best when we all vote. 

What I'll Do

• Break Milwaukee turnout records: In my first act on the Common Council I passed a bill establishing Milwaukee’s SafeVotes program which expanded ballot dropboxes and launched a public education program about options for voting in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to record-breaking registration and early voting numbers in the 2020 election. As Mayor, I’ll build on that work with a goal of breaking Milwaukee voter turnout records in 2022, 2024 and beyond.

• Defend our election laws: I’ll defend our democracy from any attacks that make it harder for our citizens to vote. As your Mayor I’ll direct the City Attorney to aggressively challenge any laws or rulings that restrict access to voting in Milwaukee, and I’ll defend our efforts to expand democracy such as ballot dropboxes and expanded early voting sites and hours. 

• Educate voters: I’ll establish a robust voter education program to be deployed each election, including mailed absentee ballot requests, extensive notices of upcoming elections via social media and mail, and city-led voter registration drives at Milwaukee high schools.

What I Believe

Small businesses like restaurants, bars and corner stores create the eclectic fabric of our neighborhoods, produce great entertainment, and have an important economic impact. The places we all love to enjoy have also been the hardest hit in this pandemic. That’s why I sponsored the Active Streets plan for in-street dining and visited over 40 small businesses in my district. I know that Milwaukee is the greatest city in the country, and as Mayor I’ll make sure it stays one of its greatest economic engines. 

What I’ll Do

• Extend the Active Streets program. If something good came of this pandemic, we all learned what a vibrant city Milwaukee can be for outdoor dining for many months of the year. As Mayor I would extend the Active Streets program so more businesses can utilize their outdoor space to safely expand their business. 

• Build a city that attracts great workers by keeping our city safe from crime and COVID, providing great public education, and growing access to affordable and high-quality child care. I’ll be a champion for our city and use my office to tout the great economic opportunities that Milwaukee has to offer to bring in the best and brightest to our city.

• Create an Office of Small Business to dedicate resources to helping small businesses start and grow in Milwaukee. The office will be a one stop shop for current and future small businesses to help navigate the process of starting and to access all of the resources available to them at the local, state and federal level. I will continue to dedicate federal funds directed to Milwaukee to help our small businesses thrive.