As college students, it can be hard to navigate political events in a digital age where presidential and world politics are constant, no matter what corner of the internet you hide in. A title of power is sometimes enough to make young adults shy away from researching certain candidates or issues. In this season of elections, it’s wildly important to educate yourself not only on the title, but on the people who we elect into these powerful roles.
Randy Knaack has been the Mayor of Menomonie for 16 years and holds the record for the longest mayoral term here in town, the previous longest term being 12 years. With the primary election just around the corner, I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Randy to get to know him as Mayor, as well as a citizen of Menomonie.
Knaack was born and raised in Menomonie and grew up on a farm. In his youth, he was quite active in foosball, cross-country, and track, and used to take his go-kart down the street near 3M, which he called his “drag street.” He was also very fond of acting, appearing in iconic roles such as Tom Sawyer and Oliver, and had a dream to become an actor. At 19, his father passed away, and Randy returned to Menomonie to inherit his father’s advertising business following a brief goodbye after high school. His family also owned the Tanglewood Golf Course before selling it a few years ago.
In 2000, he joined the school board and served there for 10 years. He also had 20 employees working for him at his advertising business. Around this time, he had developed a deep concern about the lakes in Menomonie and wanted to make strides to fix the cleanliness issues. This led him to run for mayor in 2010, but not without a few hiccups.
He and his wife, Rita had just built a house 300 feet outside of Menomonie’s city limits. He was able to convince her to move back into the city limits with him, and he won the election. Due to his lifestyle switch, he decided it would be best to downsize his employees at Knaack’s Advertising, but not before finding a new job for all the employees he had to depart from.
Since becoming mayor, he has accomplished many notable deeds. For starters, he was able to accomplish his initial goal of cleaning the lakes and has funded yearly maintenance ever since. He also has aided in making Menomonie feel more inviting by crafting the “Welcome to Menomonie” signs and adding walking trails to Red Cedar. Knaack is also to thank for the flashing yellow lights at pedestrian crosswalks, which all students and residents of Menomonie have gotten great use out of.
Recently, he has dug his heels into the ground to prevent a data center in Menomonie from being built. He had to act quickly, and for a month and a half, he stayed on his toes to ensure our quaint town wouldn’t be infiltrated by a data center. While this issue is still waiting for a consensus to be made, Knaack was able to delay the building by creating a new zoning law that postponed the decision.
Project Hope is what Randy would consider as his achievement he’s proudest of. It is a program that allows a more forgiving criminal justice system for those who are afflicted with drug abuse, while also continuing to uphold criminal justice in proper situations. Through Project Hope, Knaack and the police department have been able to assist those who need it; If they comply with the program, no criminal charges will be filed. The program originally received $35,000 from city council for funds. Since then, the funding has grown to $150,000 from the county and a couple thousand dollars shy of $1,000,000 from the state. Project Hope has allowed for the city’s police officers to be viewed in a more positive light. Some impacts include reduced juvenile delinquency and providing a mental health outreach and connecting people dealing with homelessness to resources to improve their quality of life.
While he’s done many things for the community that would be expected of a mayor, he’s focused on being a good person first. He spends his mornings and mid-afternoons driving elementary-aged children to and from their school days. One story I found particularly endearing was how he used money from his own pocket to gift Christmas presents to city employees and hand-delivered them. His motivation for this came from the discovery at the beginning of his term that there were bridges to build between the city employees and the Menomonie government. He learned that there was division to which he said, “I’m not ‘one of them’, I’m us, we’re we!” He also once jokingly asked for the “key to the city” and instead was given the key to the dump. By casually offering one day to take a citizen’s precarious garbage to the dump, he has developed a routine of collecting neighborhood trash and taking care of it himself.
In the future, he hopes to develop a system of affordable housing that results in money straight back to the renter’s pockets. He also dreams of creating more community-based spaces, with a pickleball court and grill or bar at the top of his list. Another goal is to develop a city community zone with benches and space for gathering. He also has talked about creating a community-based ice fishing shack on the lake.
Overall, I discovered that our mayor is a man who strives to live his life selflessly. When I asked him about his opinion on the upcoming election, he simply stated, “I’m not a democrat or a republican, I’m an American. We are so broken, so divided. We need good people in office.” With this short article about one of the 2026 mayoral candidates, Randy Knaack, I hope this article encourages you to educate yourself on our city council candidates and go out there and vote!
Menomonie’s Spring Primary Election for mayor is TODAY!!! (Tuesday, February 17th, 2026). You can vote in the primaries by going to your local polling place. The closest locations to UW Stout’s South Campus are as follows…
- Merle Price Commons
- City of Menomonie Council Chambers
- Menomonie Recreation Department/Leisure Services Center.
More information can be found at: https://menomonie-wi.gov/506/UW-Stout-Student-Info
