Sheboygan Mayor Ryan Sorenson to attend Democratic Party Convention

Sorenson and his allies attempted to cancel a City Council meeting so he could presumably attend the party in Chicago without being noticeably absent from City Hall

Mayor Ryan Sorenson presiding over a Common Council meeting

SHEBOYGAN — Mayor Ryan Sorenson will travel to Chicago in August to attend the Democratic National Convention.

Sorenson, a Democrat, is one of 95 delegates¹ from the State of Wisconsin who will attend the Democratic Party’s National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The delegation includes Governor Tony Evers, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, State Attorney General Josh Kaul, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and other state and local-level Democrats.

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The Democratic National Convention will be held August 19th through August 22nd. As Mayor of Sheboygan, Sorenson presides over Common Council meetings and will likely miss the August 19th meeting so he can attend the party in Chicago. Last month, Sorenson attempted to cancel the August 19th city council meeting through a proposal by Alderperson Dean Dekker and Zach Rust. After a 13 minute debate, the attempt to cancel the meeting failed by a vote of 7 to 2, with Rust failing to show up to the meeting to vote and debate the proposal he co-sponsored with Dekker.²

The two who voted in favor of canceling the July 15th and August 19th meetings were Alderpersons Barb Felde and Robert La Fave. For Felde, it was a chance to get out of two meetings. She has only attended three of seven city council meetings in-person so far since April 14th. Felde attended four meetings remotely, being minutes late to three of those meetings. During the May 6th meeting, she joined remotely 32 minutes after the meeting had started only for that meeting to end 12 minutes later.

Should Sorenson skip the August 19th meeting to attend the DNC, Alderperson Dekker would preside over meeting in the Mayor’s absence as he is the President of the Common Council.

Sorenson is a life-long Democrat. Just days after graduating from Sheboygan South High School, he made his first political donation of $79.50 to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.³ So far this year, Sorenson has donated $35 to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, $80 to the 6th Congressional District Democratic Party and $40 to the Manitowoc County Democratic Party. In total, Sorenson contributed over $2,000 to local and state Democratic candidates and committees since 2012.⁴

Sources

1. Democratic Party of Wisconsin Announces Delegation to the 2024 DNC
Democratic Party of Wisconsin

2. Sixth Regular Common Council Meeting Minutes
sheboyganwi.gov

3. Campaign finance data
Federal Election Commission

4. Wisconsin Campaign Finance Information System
Wisconsin Elections Commission