“I’m running to ensure that the law serves all the people — all the people — regardless of where they’re from, how much they make or what languages they speak,” said Huma Ahsan as she declared her candidacy for Dane County Circuit Court Sept. 17.
Ahsan officially launched her campaign for April 2026’s election where she seeks to serve as judge for Dane County Circuit Court Branch One. She;s running to fill the seat currently held in interim by Ben Jones in place of Susan Crawford, who was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court this summer. Jones was appointed by Gov. Tony Evers to serve out Crawford’s term until July 31, 2026. Currently
Ahsan is a previous chief justice of the Turtle Mountain Court of Appeals in North Dakota, legislative attorney for the Ho-Chunk Nation and founder of Madison Immigration Law. Her work has long focused on communities who often feel invisible, Ahsan said.
“My story doesn’t begin in a courtroom. It begins around a kitchen table in a small town where being an immigrant often meant being invisible,” Ahsan said. “This campaign isn’t about titles. It’s not about ambitions. It’s about truth. It’s about justice. It’s about all of you.”
She hails from the Bible Belt as the daughter of Indian immigrants. Her father came to the United States in the 1960s as an international student. He would later go on to work for NASA, and later as a professor at Western Kentucky University and UW-Stevens Point.
Her mother joined later without knowing English, but Ahsan heralds her mother’s quiet strength to find her place in a new nation. Ahsan credits that strength as the resolve that lives in her to serve the community.
Ahsan came to Wisconsin in 2005 as deputy director of the Great Lakes Indian Law Center at the University of Wisconsin Law School. There she presented a legal memorandum and oral argument to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for what would recognize Indian Tribal Courts to have full faith and credit in the state. Tribal Court orders, acts, records and judgements would have the same weights as any other government entity.
Afterwards, she joined up as the legislative council for the Ho-Chunk Nation where she worked to protect Indigenous sovereignty.
In her most recent venture, Ahsan started Madison Immigration Law, 2916 Marketplace Dr. #207. The firm works to assist foreign nationals navigate barriers to employment and education in the U.S.
I have worked at the intersection of Tribal, state and federal law where cultural understanding isn’t a luxury, it is a necessity,” Ahsan said. “I have stood besides families facing deportation. I have advocated for women escaping violence, for elders demanding dignity and for people navigating a system that was not built for them.”
Ahsan wants to bring equal justice and fairness to courts for communities for whom “the courtroom does not feel like a place of justice,” she said.
She said that as rights continue to erode under the current presidential administration, courts need to remain a place that is free of fear and a place that protects instead of persecutes.
“I’m running to ensure that our courts remain fair, accessible and deeply rooted in our shared local humanity,” Ahsan said. “Because in this moment, it calls for people with courage and principle to step up and serve our communities. It demands judges who won’t look away when rights are under attack.”
Currently, the only other declared candidate is business and family law attorney Nathan Wagner.
