Democratic candidate Kristin Alfheim will represent the 18th District in the Wisconsin State Senate after she defeated Republican Anthony Philips by just over 5,000 votes.

Having won the State Senate seat, Alfheim said that she wants to unify the people of her district.

“I don’t care in the end who you voted for,” Alfheim said. “It is time to start thinking of things from a public perspective. I will be open to hearing, to listening and to coming up with ideas from all sides. I am someone who wants to know all the information, every side of it. If we all get together at the same table, we can work through and find the best solution that is beneficial to everyone without anyone getting kicked in the teeth. That is how negotiation works.”

Alfheim received 53.3% of the vote on Election Day, well ahead of Phillips, who received 46.7% of the vote.

According to CNalysis, the Democratic Party was favored in District 18, and Alfheim is the district’s first Democratic senator in 12 years.

Alfheim, who currently serves on Appleton’s Common Council, said she’s ecstatic to get to work in District 18, which was recently redrawn to include Menasha, Neenah, most of Appleton and the northern half of Oshkosh (including the UW Oshkosh campus). She was a part of District 19 before the redraw, wherein she ran against and lost to republican Rachael Cabral-Guevara two years ago.

Alfheim said that she thinks the new maps are valuable because it puts all of the Fox Valley together

“We have to take care of our people,” Alfheim said. “We also then can focus on our own communities. The struggles that we have are similar. So we can now look at some solutions for all of those communities together, as opposed to one at a time.”

Alfheim owns Retirement Dynamix LLC, a small business in Appleton that helps people with retirement and mentors women who want to advance in their careers. She said that being a small business owner has taught her how to balance budgets, something that she is not afraid to do in the State Senate.

“There are no easy answers, but there are rational ways that both sides can come to the table, maybe give a little bit, but nobody [should] get kicked in the teeth,” Alfheim said. “That’s what we do in business. We negotiate and come to an agreement that becomes a win-win. So that is, in my opinion, what Wisconsin wants. That’s what the Fox Valley needs desperately, and that’s what I want to help with.”

She said some of her most important focuses from day one will center around the people of District 18.

“I think we have to start focusing on kids,” Alfheim said. “We have starved our municipalities, and that has a direct impact on the taxpayers [and] property taxes in these communities. So people want lower taxes. People want better resources. We can use a lot, or at least a good chunk, of surplus to rebalance those programs and get the pressure off of the property owners, to improve services.”

Alfheim said that taking care of communities and kids is the foundation to the district’s success.

“If we don’t have that, then our businesses will struggle in the long run, in terms of employee retention, [and] families being attracted to us,” Alfheim said. “We must take care of the foundation of our society; [our] kids and our communities.”