Dean R. Kaufert (born May 23, 1957) is an American business owner andRepublican politician fromNeenah, Wisconsin. He is a member of theWisconsin State Assembly, representingWisconsin's 53rd Assembly district since 2025. He previously represented the55th Assembly district from 1991 to 2015, and served as mayor of Neenah from 2014 to 2022.

Dean Kaufert was born inMenasha, Wisconsin, on May 23, 1957.^[1] He was raised and educated in Menasha and neighboringNeenah, Wisconsin, graduating from Neenah'sArmstrong High School in 1975.^[2][3] After graduation, Kaufert was employed at Jay's Foods, a grocer.^[4]

In these years, Kaufert was active in local recreational bowling, basketball, and baseball leagues. Through these interests, in 1983, Kaufert and a friend decided to start a small business dealing in trophies, plaques, and other similar awards, known as All-Sport Trophy & Engraving.^[5][6]

In 1986, Kaufert won his first public office when he was elected to the Neenah City Council.^[2] He defeated incumbent city councilmember Lester Herzfeld, 343–245, in what was considered a local upset.^[7] Kaufert credited his win to an aggressive door-to-door canvassing effort.^[8] Kaufert won a rematch two years later for another two-year term, and was re-elected without opposition in 1990.^[9][10]

A few weeks after his 1990 city council re-election, Kaufert announced he intended to seek theRepublican Party nomination forWisconsin State Assembly in the55th Assembly district. His run effectively set up aprimary challenge against incumbentEsther K. Walling,^[11] but a month later, Walling announced she would not run again.^[12] Her withdrawal invited a wave of additional candidates to jump into the race, and Kaufert ultimately faced three opponents in the Republican primary, but prevailed with 48% of the vote.^[13] In the general election, Kaufert defeated Democrat Stanley P. Sevenich with 59% of the vote.^[13] Kaufert resigned from the city council shortly after winning election to the Assembly.

He won re-election twice, in 1992 and 1994, by wide margins,^[14][15] then faced no opponent for the next five elections.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

In the1997 legislative term, Kaufert was appointed to a coveted seat on the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, responsible for Wisconsin's budget and appropriations process.^[21]

In 2006, Kaufert faced a serious challenge in the general election from Democrat Mark Westphal, the president of the Fox Valley Area Labor Council for the previous 10 years.^[21] Westphal campaigned against the Republican majority in the Legislature, which he cast as overly partisan and focused on special interests. Boosted by a national Democratic wave, Westphal gave Kaufert his closest race yet; Kaufert prevailed by 811 votes.^[22] Westphal ran again in 2008, but Kaufert won again by the slightly larger margin of 2,080 votes.^[23]

The 2010 election ushered in full Republican control of Wisconsin state government, and resulted in Republicans passing one of the most dramatic gerrymanders in United States history. Kaufert's district saw its most significant reconfiguration since 1954. Neenah's twin city, Menasha, was removed from the district and replaced with parts of rural neighboring townships in Winnebago and Outagamie counties.^[24]

In 2014 Kaufert was elected mayor ofNeenah, Wisconsin.^[25] The night of his mayoral election, Kaufert announced he would not run for re-election to the Assembly, but remained in both offices until the end of the2013–2014 term.^[26]

Kaufert was re-elected without opposition to another four-year term as mayor in 2018, but announced in 2021 that he would not run for a third term.^[27]

In May 2024, Kaufert announced his intention to run again for Wisconsin State Assembly in the new53rd Assembly district. The 2024 redistricting had returned Kaufert's hometown, Neenah, to the same district as twin city Menasha, assembling the new 53rd Assembly district in a configuration similar to Kaufert's old 55th Assembly district prior to the 2011 redistricting. In thegeneral election, Kaufert faced fellow Neenah resident Duane Shukoski, a labor union leader at the local Kimberly-Clark plant.^[28] The district was projected to be highly competitive, and the result proved to be one of the closest legislative races in the state. Kaufert prevailed by just 364 votes.^[29][30]

Dean Kaufert is one of four children born to Kenneth Kaufert and Ruth (née Raddatz) Kaufert. Dean's parents divorced, and both subsequently remarried. His mother died of a long illness at the relatively young age of 37, in 1976.^[31]

Dean Kaufert married Renee Strunk on July 22, 1978.^[4] They have two adult children and still reside in Neenah.^[2]

• Dean Kaufert atBallotpedia
• Campaign website
• Neenah Mayor website
• Representative Dean Kaufert (2013) atWisconsin Legislature
• All-Sport Trophy & Engraving

• 1957 births
• Living people
• People from Menasha, Wisconsin
• Politicians from Neenah, Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point alumni
• Wisconsin city council members
• Republican Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
• 21st-century mayors of places in Wisconsin
• 21st-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature
• 20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature

• Articles with short description
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