10 Facts About Mike McCabe

On September 12,2017, McCabe announced that he would run as a Democrat in the 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, stating that it was in response to a letter from 190 Wisconsinites urging him to run.

Mike McCabe was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin and lived on an 80-acre farm near Evansville in the early part of his childhood.

Mike McCabe grew up on a 200-acre farm outside of Curtiss for most of his upbringing.

Mike McCabe is a 1978 graduate of Owen-Withee High School, which inducted him into its Alumni Hall of Fame in 2014, and a 1982 graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism, which honored him with its Distinguished Service Award in 2015.

Mike McCabe worked for six years as communications director and legislative liaison for Madison public schools.

Mike McCabe worked as a newspaper reporter and as a legislative aide for three Republican members of the Wisconsin State Assembly.

For 15 years, Mike McCabe was the head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a group that lobbies for having taxpayers finance political campaigns to reduce the influence of special interests.

Mike McCabe's group was influential in banning the legislative caucus staff that performed campaign work on state time.

Mike McCabe ran as a Democrat once before, against Mark Pocan for the state Assembly in 1998.

In 2014, Mike McCabe published Blue Jeans in High Places sharing his view of Wisconsin state politics, which he regards as corrupt and highly influenced by political financiers and lobbyists.