Bucks players inspired owner's son Alex Lasry to run for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin
MILWAUKEE – Alex Lasry had finished a day of campaigning in Wisconsin and stopped by Milwaukee’s legendary Serbian restaurant Three Brothers for a private dinner with friends and guests.
It’s all part of Lasry’s schedule as he tries to convince Wisconsin voters he is the right Democrat to take the place of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who is undecided about his 2022 re-election plans.
“We’re trying to go to places where at times Democrats have neglected and Republicans are taken for granted and talk to voters, build trust and rapport and say, ‘We’re going to be a voice for you in D.C.,” Lasry told Paste BN Sports. “You might not agree with everything that I do or have to say but you’re always going to be able to call our campaign and talk to us and we’re going to be accessible and a voice for you in D.C. For the last 10 years, we haven’t had that.”
Lasry, the son of Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, is a senior vice president with the team but took a leave of absence in February to concentrate on his bid for the Senate seat. The Democratic primary is in August 2022, just ahead of the November election.
Economic growth and development in the state are at the heart of Lasry’s agenda. But the Bucks also inspired Lasry to run. Mainly involved on the the business side, he is a regular presence at home games and was instrumental in helping local residents find jobs constructing the new downtown arena Fiserv Forum. He wants to help Wisconsin residents, and that was also apparent during the past year during an important moment in social and racial justice.
The Bucks were playing in the bubble when Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha in August of 2020. This was just months after Breonna Taylor's shooting death by police in Louisville, and Bucks players were upset and unable to focus on basketball. Bucks players boycotted their Aug. 25 playoff game against Orlando and called on Wisconsin legislators to reconvene and "take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform," the players said in a statement.
"Players said, 'This happened in our backyard and this needs to stop,'" Lasry said. "In that statement, one of the first times ever, a team directly called out the legislature and said, ‘Get back to work.’ That was an incredibly powerful moment. People will remember that from the bubble – a sports team leading on racial and social justice and for us, to be the first ownership group to march with their players and say, ‘We demand change and we demand justice,' all of these experiences, it’s had an effect."
For Lasry, addressing Wisconsin's economy is a way to help solve or mitigate other issues.
“How can we bring more jobs and investment to this state and how can we raise wages,” he said. “Under that are a lot of important issues. The way we can bring jobs and investment is make sure we have a strong labor pool and that’s investment in public education, that no matter your zip code, you can get a good public education.
“It’s making sure we’re investing in trade schools so that if someone says they don’t want to go to a four-year college or community college, that they can go to a trade school and join a union and not worry about $15 minimum wage but make $30, $40 an hour. You can make a good living working as a tradesman. It’s investing in transportation so that our labor pool has opened up so that if you want to live in Racine, you can travel to Kenosha, Milwaukee or Madison and work there as well. If you want to live in Wausau, you can travel to any other part of the state and work there.”
Lasry, 34, is no stranger to politics. He comes from a family of political fundraisers (his dad helped raise money for President Obama, President Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton) and interned on Capitol Hill in college. Following college, he worked at Goldman Sachs and in the Obama administration as a special assistant to the chief of staff for senior advisor Valerie Jarret and as a deputy counselor to Jarrett working on business outreach and the Jobs Council.
Why is Lasry running, especially when Republicans and some Democrats will point out he is the son of billionaire hedge-fund manager and businessman and has connections to wealthy donors? Why get involved in that when he doesn’t need to do it?
“This is really important moment in our history and in our country where we need people who are going to be in office who aren’t peddling conspiracy theories, who don’t believe science is real and who actually want to do the job. That’s one of the most important things,” he said. “One of the reasons I wanted to run is government can do a lot of good, and it can have a meaningful impact on people’s lives. It’s not always going to be things that lead CNN or on the front page of Paste BN or the (Milwaukee) Journal Sentinel.
“We’re all people who want good jobs, want good opportunities for our kids, want to make sure that if I put in an honest day’s work and work hard and play by the rules, that I can support my family and I’m not worried about putting food on the table. That’s something everyone wants, and people feel like that opportunity is not always there."
Lasry, who has raised nearly $2 million since January according to the Federal Election Commission data, believes his unique background of working in White House and working locally in Wisconsin to build Fiserv Forum, the Bucks’ new downtown arena, and develop around the arena and in the city gives him a perspective that can help Wisconsinites.
“The way we’re going to connect is by talking about bringing good union jobs and investments and a big piece of that is the next generation of manufacturing jobs – these green tech jobs,” Lasry said. “So how do we make sure if it’s electric car battery manufacturing, wind turbine manufacturing and other green manufacturing jobs are being done here in Wisconsin. That’s coming back to investing in our labor pool, investing in transportation so that companies say I want to put my manufacturing base here and have good union jobs brought to Wisconsin.”
Lasry and ownership have tried to connect with residents since they purchased the Bucks in 2014. He is pro-union, which should garner support in the state, and his campaign staff is unionized. The Bucks used 100% union workers to build the arena and 80% of the material sourced for the new arena came from Wisconsin, Lasry said. Fiserv Forum pays all employees at least a $15 minimum wage.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494 and Teamsters Joint Council 39 have endorsed Lasry.
He is also a Milwaukee resident and plans to stay. His wife, Lauren, is expected to give birth to the first child, a daughter, within the month.
“It’s where I’m going to raise my family,” he said. “My daughter is going to be born here and we’re going to raise her here. I want her to grow up and say, ‘This is the place I want to live, too’ and make sure the next 10, 20 years, Wisconsin is growing at 10% rather than 3%.”
Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.