Meet Nate:
Nate Kieso is a mental health social worker who lives and works in the 14th District. He serves on the City of West Allis Capital Improvement Committee; reviewing budgets and recommending significant purchases made by the city. He is running on the Democratic ticket to support candidates up-and-down on the ballot. Nate and his wife, Anne, bought their home in West Allis as newlyweds and put down roots in the community.
Nate is the son of an Air Force veteran mother and a cardiology researcher father. Nate learned at a young age the importance of unions due to the untimely passing of his father. His mother, a single-parent and a nursing assistant, was able to support Nate and his sister because his mother had a good, family-supporting, union job.
Nate has worked in the healthcare field his entire career, starting as a direct care worker in group homes for people with disabilities and completing his masters of social work degree in 2016. At the UI School of Social work he studied systems-level public policy with a focus on disability. He has worked to help aging Wisconsinites get the care and services they need to stay in their homes, as well as providing mental health treatment to members of our community.
He first heeded the call to public service as part of the disaster response and recovery efforts during the 2008 Iowa Floods. Nate built sandbag walls, gutted ruined homes, and worked to restart the operations of the Johnson County Food Bank.
He is a rank-and-file worker activist and executive board member of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council. Nate joined the same AFSCME union his mother joined when raising Nate and his sister. Nate organized workers to raise local minimum wages, to join together at their workplaces, and to fight against racial disparities in worker pay.