Meet Adam

My name is Adam Follmer. I was born and raised in Wisconsin and have proudly called District 1 home since 2016, when my family and I put down roots in St. Francis. I currently teach at a local university, preparing future speech-language pathologists for a field I’ve spent years working in myself.

During my time working at healthcare facilities—from South Milwaukee to Racine to Kenosha—I saw the same story repeating itself. Dedicated people were keeping the system afloat despite chronic understaffing, heavy workloads, and profit-driven decision-making. Too often, medical care was dictated not by patients’ needs, but by what an insurance plan would cover.

When I transitioned to teaching, I saw a chance to help future clinicians enter the field with their eyes and hearts open to our medical system realities. My goal was to modernize training and prepare students for the constraints of working within a for-profit system, equipping them not just to cope, but to demand better for themselves and the patients. Yet, as cost-cutting measures in healthcare accelerate and student debt climbs, the promise of higher education delivering on stable, meaningful work for these future clinicians feels increasingly uncertain.

The problems I faced in my career are the same ones most Americans face. The corporations continue to accumulate record earnings while the average citizen is economically squeezed at every turn. What keeps me committed to public service is the same belief that first drew me to healthcare: that people deserve dignity, fairness, and opportunity. I’ve seen firsthand the cost of systems that put profit ahead of patients, students, and working families. I’m running to be a voice for the people who keep our communities strong and to build policies that put them, not corporate interests, at the center of our future.