Sarah Ann Godlewski (born November 9, 1981)[1] is an American businesswoman and politician serving since March 2023 as the 31st secretary of state of Wisconsin. She was appointed secretary of state by Governor Tony Evers after the previous secretary of state resigned. She previously served as the 36th state treasurer of Wisconsin, from 2019 to 2023.[2][3][4][5]

She was a candidate for United States Senate in the 2022 election, but withdrew from the race in July 2022, before the primary election.

Early life and education

Godlewski was born and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and graduated from Eau Claire's Memorial High School in 2000.[6] She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in peace and conflict resolution from George Mason University.[7] She also completed a certificate in public treasury management from the National Institute of Public Finance and Pepperdine School of Management, was a national security fellow at the Air War College, and attended the University of Virginia Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership as well as the Executive Master of Public Administration program at the University of Pennsylvania.[8]

Career

Godlewski has worked in philanthropy. Projects included education reform and public health in Uganda.[9] Between 2004 and 2012, Godlewski worked for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.[10]

Godlewski with Hillary Clinton in 2016

Godlewski worked for Arapahoe County, Colorado, from 2012 to 2016 as the director of the Office of Strategy and Performance.[11][12] During that time, Godlewski was a member of the Joint Task Force on Veterans with PTSD which made recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States Congress.

In 2015, Godlewski co-founded investment firm MaSa Impact with her husband Max Duckworth.[13][14] They first met in 2013 on a regional volunteer board of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.[15]

In 2016, Godlewski was the director of Women's Outreach for Wisconsin in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Godlewski caucused for Clinton in Colorado in March 2016. She did not vote in the general election in Wisconsin, because she was unsure of whether she qualified as a resident, according to a spokesperson.[16]

Godlewski served on the board for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and served as chairperson of the UNICEF Advocacy Committee. She also served on the board for mOm Incubators,[17] the Arlington Academy of Hope, and George Mason University's School of Visual and Performance Arts. Godlewski has also been an investor with WE Capital.[18]

Wisconsin state treasurer

Campaign

In the spring of 2018, Godlewski led a campaign coalition opposing a Wisconsin ballot measure that would have eliminated the office of the state treasurer from the Constitution of Wisconsin.[19] Voters rejected the constitutional amendment, with 62% voting against eliminating the office of state treasurer.[20] Just after the referendum, in April 2018, Godlewski announced her candidacy for state treasurer.[21] Godlewski won a three-way primary on August 14, 2018, receiving 43.5% of the vote.[22] Her opponents were former television anchor Cynthia Kaump and former state treasurer Dawn Marie Sass.[23]

For the general election, Godlewski raised over $700,000 for her campaign, while Travis Hartwig, her Republican opponent, raised less than $13,000.[24] Godlewski and her husband contributed over $300,000 to her own campaign.[25] She won the general election with 50.9% of the vote, to Hartwig's 46.8%.[26][27][28] She took more of the vote share than the newly elected Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general and flipped 9 counties that had voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.[29]

Tenure

After being elected, Godlewski received a memo from the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau that identified 16 responsibilities that the state treasurer should be doing but had neglected in recent years.[30] During the transition for Governor-elect Tony Evers, Godlewski was appointed to serve as a member of the Next Generation Workforce and Economic Development Policy Advisory Council.[31][32] In January 2019, Godlewski was unanimously elected to serve as chairwoman of the state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.[33] The state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands voted to lift a GOP mandated gag order prohibiting staff from discussing or considering the material risk of climate change to state investments.[34] In August 2019, Godlewski and Governor Evers established a Retirement Task Force to create new investment options and expand awareness of retirement planning in Wisconsin.[35] In February 2021, the task force presented its results to Governor Evers. Its recommendations included five proposals: WisconsinSaves, 401(K)ids, Emergency Savings, Incentivize Participation, and Interactive E-Commerce Portal.[36] In March 2020, Godlewski created the Treasurer's Homeowners Task Force.[37] In her role as the chair of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, she released an additional $5.25 million to aid in virtual learning on top of a record $38.2 million to public school libraries.[38]

2022 U.S. Senate election

Main article: 2022 United States Senate election in Wisconsin § Democratic primary

On April 14, 2021, Godlewski announced that she would run for United States Senate in the 2022 election.[39] She was endorsed by EMILY's List, a Democratic political action committee (PAC) that seeks to elect pro-choice women.[40]

Godlewski's investments in 14 pharmaceutical companies drew scrutiny from a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel due to her attacks on big pharma in advertisements for her Senate run. Godlewski's campaign responded that the stocks had all been sold by early 2022 and she had not been involved in routine investment management.[41]

Godlewski dropped out of the race in July 2022 prior to the August 2022 Democratic primary and endorsed Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.[42] By the time she dropped out of the Senate race, it was too late to file to run for re-election as treasurer, and Godlewski's term in office expired in January 2023.

Wisconsin secretary of state

In a surprise announcement on March 17, 2023, Governor Tony Evers revealed that the recently re-elected secretary of state, Doug La Follette, would retire after forty years in office. Evers then said that he would immediately appoint Godlewski to serve out the remainder of La Follette's four-year term, expiring January 2027.[43]

References

  1. ^ "Thursday's birthdays". Politico. No. November 9, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  2. ^ "Sarah Godlewski: Executive Profile". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  3. ^ "Wisconsin Eye discussion on the merits of the State Treasurer's office". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  4. ^ "U.S. News & World Report".
  5. ^ "Democrat enters treasurer race after fighting to save office". WMTV. April 4, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2025.
  6. ^ Johnson, Shawn (April 14, 2021). "Wisconsin Treasurer Sarah Godlewski To Run For US Senate". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  7. ^ Bauer, Scott (April 14, 2021). "Wisconsin Treasurer Godlewski launches US Senate bid". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
  8. ^ Wroge, Logan (August 12, 2018). "Candidate Q&A: State Treasurer Democratic Party". Associated Press. Wisconsin State Journal.
  9. ^ Bahrampour, Tara (May 21, 2006). "Learning Experience After building a life in Arlington, Ugandan immigrant John Wanda decided to build something more ambitious – a school for his native village". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  10. ^ Bice, Daniel (May 24, 2021). "Bice: U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski says she saved taxpayers 'tens of millions of dollars.' She just can't prove it". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  11. ^ "Creating a Strategy That Speaks to Everyone". Association for Talent Development. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  12. ^ "Arapahoe County hires new Director of Performance Management Sarah Godlewski will support and assist departments, elected offices with the County's Align Arapahoe initiatives and performance measures". Arapahoe County, Colorado (Press release). December 18, 2012. Archived from the original on October 12, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018 – via Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ "MaSa Partners Investor Profile: Portfolio & Exits". pitchbook.com. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  14. ^ "Wisconsin Treasurer Godlewski launches US Senate bid". ABC News. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  15. ^ "A Courtship for Children". UNICEF USA!. February 15, 2015. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2025 – via Wayback Machine.
  16. ^ Bice, Daniel (June 29, 2021). "Bice: U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski didn't vote in 2016 election despite working on Hillary Clinton campaign". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  17. ^ "Innovators & Disruptors: The 2017 Tech 25". Washington Life Magazine. November 7, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  18. ^ "Interview: Sarah Godlewski". iKnowPolitics. July 27, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. ^ Bauer, Scott (April 14, 2021). "Wisconsin State Treasurer Godlewski launches US Senate bid". Associated Press.
  20. ^ County by County Report - 2018 Spring Election (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Elections Commission. May 7, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2025.
  21. ^ "Sarah Godlewski for Wisconsin State Treasurer". Shepherd Express. October 30, 2018. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  22. ^ Almukhtar, Sarah (August 14, 2018). "Wisconsin Primary Election Results". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  23. ^ "Wisconsin commission certifies election results". WMTV. Associated Press. December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
  24. ^ "2018 Campaign Finance Profile - Sarah Godlewski". www.wisdc.org. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  25. ^ "GODLEWSKI, SARAH - FollowTheMoney.org". www.followthemoney.org. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  26. ^ "Wisconsin elections: Democrat Sarah Godlewski wins state treasurer race". Wisconsin Rapids Tribune. November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  27. ^ "Democrat Godlewski wins State Treasurer's office". WEAU. November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2018 – via WBAY-TV.
  28. ^ Younge, Gary (November 29, 2018). "The new wave of Democrats owes a huge debt to people power". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  29. ^ Holbrook, Liz (July 21, 2021). "Wisconsin Senate Candidate Sarah Godlewski Tours Merrill Manufactuer". WOZZ.
  30. ^ "Future state treasurer faces tough challenges". WTMJ-TV. December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
  31. ^ "Evers and Barnes Announce Next Generation Workforce and Economic Development Policy Advisory Council". Madison365. December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
  32. ^ "Governor-elect Tony Evers and Lt. Governor-elect Mandela Barnes Announce Next Generation Workforce and Economic Development Policy Advisory Council". Office of Governor-elect Tony Evers (Press release). December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018 – via Urban Milwaukee.
  33. ^ "Godlewski to chair Public Lands board". Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
  34. ^ Weihert, Sarah (February 11, 2019). "Board of Commissioners of Public Lands overturns gag order on climate change". Lake Mills Leader.
  35. ^ Kirwan, Hope (August 22, 2019). "Wisconsin State Treasurer, Governor Launch Retirement Task Force". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  36. ^ "State Treasurer Godlewski: Governor's Task Force Unveils Innovative, Bipartisan Proposals to Strengthen Retirement Security for Wisconsin Workers and Families". Office of the Treasurer of Wisconsin (Press release). February 11, 2021 – via Wisbusiness.com.
  37. ^ "State Treasurer Godlewski brings together Homeowners Task Force to help Wisconsinites buy homes and stay in them". Seehafer News. March 8, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  38. ^ "State Treasurer announces $5.25 million for public schools during COVID19". WEAU. April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  39. ^ Bauer, Scott (April 14, 2021). "Wisconsin Treasurer Godlewski launches US Senate bid". Associated Press.
  40. ^ Glauber, Bill (June 29, 2021). "EMILY's List endorses Democrat Sarah Godlewski in 2022 Senate Race". Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  41. ^ Bice, Daniel (April 4, 2022). "Bice: Sarah Godlewski hates how much Big Pharma charges for drugs. But she didn't mind owning its stock". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  42. ^ Greenwood, Max (July 29, 2022). "Sarah Godlewski ends Senate bid in Wisconsin, clearing path for Barnes". The Hill. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  43. ^ Beck, Molly (March 17, 2023). "Secretary of State Doug La Follette to retire, Gov. Tony Evers appoints Sarah Godlewski to post". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Dave Sartori
 Democratic nominee for Treasurer of Wisconsin
2018 		Succeeded by
Aaron Richardson
Political offices
Preceded by Treasurer of Wisconsin
2019–2023 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State of Wisconsin
2023–present 		Incumbent
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Godlewski
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