2025 Dane County Executive election

2025 Dane County Executive election

April 1, 2025
 
Candidate Melissa Agard Stephen Ratzlaff
Popular vote 199,932 46,432
Percentage 80.81% 18.77%

County executive before election

Melissa Agard

Elected County executive

Melissa Agard

The 2025 Dane County Executive election was held on April 1, 2025. Incumbent County Executive Melissa Agard, who had just been elected months earlier in a 2024 special election, ran for re-election to a full term. Agard's only opponent was salesman Stephen Ratzlaff, a former State Assembly candidate.

In seeking re-election, Agard noted that her "number one priority" was "be[ing] a responsible and good steward of tax dollars," noting that her "approach focuses on fiscal responsibility, smart investments and accountability in government spending." Ratzlaff, meanwhile, ran on a single-issue platform of reducing property taxes, arguing that "property taxes have increased at a rate that is unsustainable."

Agard won re-election in a landslide, receiving 81 percent of the vote to Ratzlaff's 19 percent.