About Evan
Evan was born and raised in Wisconsin, and attended Marquette University Law School. During law school, Evan participated in the Milwaukee Street Law program where he taught high school students at Tenor High School and completed a year-long internship with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Following graduation, Evan worked as an adjunct professor of law at Marquette and was hired as an attorney with the Wisconsin State Public Defender.
In 2012, Evan was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly and continues to serve in that role. Representing the 18th Assembly District, which includes neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s north and west sides as well as parts of Wauwatosa, Evan serves as the senior Assembly Democrat on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance. In this role, Evan is a leading voice for Wisconsin’s two-year state budget and has advocated for public schools, healthcare, and increased local government funding among many other important issues. He has also served on the Judiciary Committee and the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
During his tenure in the Legislature, Evan successfully worked across the aisle to pass legislation benefiting Milwaukee. Evan partnered with the City Attorney’s office and local stakeholders to address repeated nuisance complaints at tobacco outlets. These properties exploited a loophole in state law and too frequently became magnets of criminal activity. Passing this state legislation has empowered residents, alderpersons, and the City of Milwaukee to hold property owners accountable, improve quality of life and reduce crime.
Evan again built a bi-partisan coalition of legislators to address bad landlords and quality of life issues. Working with the City Attorney’s Office, Evan authored legislation to prevent landlords that haven’t paid their taxes or fixed up their properties from acquiring new properties at Sheriff’s sales, where a number of known bad landlords were gaming the system. Exposed by investigative journalists, Evan helped stop this by working with rural Republican legislators, the City of Milwaukee, and a number of stakeholders to craft the solution.
Rep. Evan Goyke testifying in support of legislation to crack down on absentee landlords and help reclaim boarded up and abandoned homes in Milwaukee.
Rep. Evan Goyke addressing advocates for Wisconsin seniors and advancing legislation for universal retirement savings accounts.
Rep. Evan Goyke joining Alderman Bob Bauman and neighbors for the ground breaking of a new community garden and park in the Cold Spring Park neighborhood.
Rep. Evan Goyke addressing a Community Brainstorming meeting, in the winter of 2016, regarding the need for changes to Wisconsin’s juvenile justice system.
Rep. Evan Goyke leading a press conference advocating for expanded quality healthcare in the Wisconsin state budget.
One of Evan’s most important legislative achievements has been leading the effort to modernize juvenile justice in Wisconsin. For years, young people, mostly from Milwaukee, experienced unacceptable conditions at Wisconsin’s only juvenile correctional facility, Lincoln Hills, in northern Wisconsin. That facility will close soon and our kids will remain closer to home. This effort included passing legislation in 2018, 2020, and 2022 — each time Evan helped guide the bills with unanimous legislative support.
Evan and his wife Gabriela (Gaby) live on Milwaukee’s near west side. They live in a formerly foreclosed home and have been working to restore it to its original beauty. They share their home with Pistachio, their six-pound ferocious guard dog, and their young son Miguel. Gaby is also a graduate of Marquette University Law School and works as a public defender within the Federal legal system. Both are active in their neighborhood and broader community.