(The Center Square) – Madison’s mayor says threats, harassment and her mental health are driving her out of the race for reelection.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway on Friday released an open letter that explained that she is no longer running for mayor.

“After much reflection, I have decided not to seek reelection in April. It has been a tremendous honor to be your mayor. We have moved Madison forward and our record proves that. But for me, the price of serving has become too high. This was not an easy decision, but it is the right decision for me and my family, our personal safety, mental health and well-being,” she wrote.

Rhodes-Conway was first elected in 2019 and was elected again in 2023. She announced months ago that she would run again, and she wrote in her letter that she has no doubt that she’d be elected for a third time.

"Thanks to our work, Madison is thriving. People want to live here, businesses want to locate and grow here, and our quality of life is high. We are not perfect – we still have persistent racial and economic disparities, and we are not immune to the national economic trends - but compared to many other cities, we are doing very well," she added. "I'm proud of these accomplishments and confident that voters would judge my record favorably and grant me another term."

Rhodes-Conway did not say who was making the threats, or specifically what those threats entailed or were about. But Rhodes-Conway has faced criticism from progressives in Madison, including her own former independent police monitor, over how she sent city crews to clean up and break up the Corey Ruiz protest zone.

“I have always welcomed honest disagreement and invited community input, but over the years the balance has shifted from productive discussion to increasingly vitriolic, personal attacks from people who seem not to care about actually understanding and debating an issue," the mayor wrote. "How can any leader govern responsibly when personal attacks and baseless conspiracies carry more weight than facts? How can any Mayor be effective when a difference of opinion is cast as unforgivable betrayal that justifies threats of violence?"

Rhodes-Conway also wrote that she is not the only one who has received threats or been on the receiving end of harassment in Madison.

"When I ran for mayor, I expected to make sacrifices – but I did not expect the level of threats to myself, Council members, my staff, and my family. I did not expect our civic discourse to deteriorate so severely. And I did not expect the levels of implicit and explicit sexism to which I have been subjected to from the very beginning of my first campaign," she stated.

Without Rhodes-Conway, there are now eight candidates running for mayor in Madison.

Voters will choose two in the primary election in February.