Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich re-elected for a second term

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Following a grueling and challenging mayoral campaign, Green Bay Mayor will keep his seat in office as he was re-elected for a second term. Mayor Genrich received 53 percent of the vote. His challenger, Chad Weininger, received 47 percent of the vote. A difference of around 1,500 votes.

Mayor Genrich held his watch party at The Gather on Broadway Tuesday evening. He said he has another four years to do great things for the city, which include focusing on infrastructure, public safety, housing development, climate change, and more. Genrich believes Green Bay is destined to be a great community.

“I just think it’s helpful to continue us on this trajectory,” Genrich said. “I talked like I said in my victory speech about some of the bread-and-butter issues that we focused on. Public safety, infrastructure, on community development, but we’ve done things a bit differently as well. We’ve welcomed new people into the process. We’ve put a focus on resiliency and fighting climate change and opening up city government and leaning into democracy. So I’m really proud of that stuff but we’ve got a lot to do. You know on the development front, especially on housing so that’s going to be a big priority for us moving forward.”

Prior to giving his victory speech, Mayor Genrich heard from Weininger. Both candidates said they will continue to cooperate with each other to help make Green Bay a better city.

“It was a quick phone call,” Weininger said. “I called him and left a message. He called me back. We just had a brief conversation. He wished me well, he thanked me for running and we’re just going to move forward”

“I appreciate you know Chad stepping up and running,” Genrich said. “He called shortly after the results were finalized and I thanked him for running.”

When asked about what his campaign had to do following the loss in the primary election, Genrich said the primary isn’t worth much if you don’t win the general.

“The primary and the general election are really two distinct races in my opinion especially with just the difference in turnout so you know we knew we didn’t have to spend a lot of money to get through that primary and so we conserved our resources and spent them here in the general election you know so that was kind of a tactical decision that we’re sort of willing to come up a little bit short understanding that the primary isn’t really worth a whole heck of a lot if you don’t win the general,” Genrich said.

Mayor Genrich said he will continue to be the mayor for all the residents of Green Bay, no matter what side of the political aisle they are on.

“You know in politics people have differences of opinion and you know I welcome that,” he said. “I think that’s you know people are able to kind of manage those differences but still focus on what we share in common and put that to work to benefit you know a community like Green Bay and that’s a great thing.”

“As we move forward we just need to come together and do what’s in the best interest of the city and that’s to support Eric right now to make sure we’re successful as a city,” Weininger said.

Copyright 2023 WBAY. All rights reserved.