Wisconsin - My Son, the Mayor

Youngest Mayor | Justin Nickels, 22, is sworn in as mayor of Manitowoc, Wis., by City Clerk Jennifer Hudon. 

Photo Credit: Jennifer Nickels

Manitowoc, Wisconsin

AFSCME member Dave Nickels wasn’t surprised that his son was elected Manitowoc’s 27th — and youngest — mayor in April. After all, he says, 22-year-old Justin “has been interested in politics as long as I can remember.”

As president of Local 986 (Council 40) for 19 years, Dave often took his son to union meetings. “Justin always liked to hang onto the gavel,” he recalls. But the county caseworker for the elderly and disabled says Justin got the politics fever after watching the 1996 film ‘Independence Day.’ Seeing the President make decisions, Justin realized that he wanted to be President someday.

Justin’s first real taste of politics came when he worked as a 14-year-old volunteer during Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign. In 2005, he ran for a seat on Manitowoc’s Common Council. As a high school student, Justin was too young to legally sign his own nomination papers. “I had to go to City Hall and sign for him,” says his dad. “As long as he turned 18 prior to the election, he could run.” Justin defeated an incumbent who first won office when Justin was two, but he didn’t stop there.

This April, he became one of the nation’s youngest mayors, beating his opponent by a 17-vote margin out of more than 9,400 ballots cast. AFSCME helped make the victory possible through phone calls, door-knocking and mailers.

“When we pull together, we can have an impact on almost any election,” says Mary Goulding, president of Council 40. “But when an election is decided by just 17 votes, there is no question that reaching out to the 335 AFSCME households made all the difference.”

Mayor Justin Nickels agrees. “It is because of their effort that I sit in this office today.”