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Sara Rodriguez

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Sara Rodriguez
Rodriguez in 2023
46th Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2023
GovernorTony Evers
Preceded byMandela Barnes
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
from the 13th district
In office
January 4, 2021 – January 3, 2023
Preceded byRob Hutton
Succeeded byTom Michalski
Personal details
Born (1975-07-25) July 25, 1975 (age 49)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Children2
EducationIllinois Wesleyan University (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (BS, MS)
WebsiteCampaign website

Sara Rodriguez (born July 25, 1975) is an American registered nurse, health care executive, and Democratic politician. She is the 46th and incumbent lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, having been elected on a ticket with Governor Tony Evers in the 2022 election. She previously served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 13th Assembly district during the 2021 session.[1]

Early life and education

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Rodriguez was born and raised in the Milwaukee metropolitan area in southeast Wisconsin. She graduated from Brookfield East High School and earned her B.A. in neuroscience from Illinois Wesleyan University. Immediately after college, she volunteered with the Peace Corps and was sent to Samoa, where she served for two years. During that time she also volunteered with the World Health Organization.[2]

After returning to the United States, she continued her education at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a bachelor's degree and master's degrees in public health and nursing.[3]

Healthcare career

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Rodriguez worked for two years as a registered nurse in the emergency department at the Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, then went to work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their Epidemic Intelligence Service from 2004 to 2006.[2]

In 2006 she moved to Colorado and worked as associate director of nursing at the Tri-County Health Department, serving Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas Counties. In 2009 she was appointed Chronic Disease Branch Director in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, under Governor Bill Ritter.

In 2011, she returned to Wisconsin and was employed as Vice President of Clinical and Analytical Services at The Benefit Services Group, Inc., until 2014. She then worked three years as Vice President of Clinical Services at Honeywell Life Care Solutions. From 2017 until her campaign for the Assembly in 2020, she was vice president for Population Health and Integrated Care Management at Advocate Aurora Health.[3]

Political career

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Rodriguez with Governor Tony Evers at a rally, 2022.

In 2020, Rodriguez declared that she would be a candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly in the 13th assembly district, challenging incumbent Republican Rob Hutton. Hutton was first elected after the Republican redistricting in 2012, which made the 13th district significantly more Republican—Hutton carried the district with 60% of the vote in 2012[4] and was unopposed in 2014 and 2016.[5] Despite the redistricting plan, the 13th district had moved back toward Democrats—like several other suburban districts—during Trump's presidency. Hutton was in his fourth term in 2020 and had won reelection in 2018 by a margin of just 955 votes.[6]

Rodriguez said she was inspired to run by Republican inaction around the 2020 spring election, which occurred during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin. She said, "when the Republican-led Legislature made people choose between their health and right to vote in the spring election, I just felt my background in health care and epidemiology would be helpful."[6] Rodriguez prevailed in the November general election, winning the seat by 735 votes.[7] She was one of only two candidates in Wisconsin to defeat an incumbent in the 2020 general election.[8] Her seat, which had been originally been redistricted to remove more liberal portions of Wauwatosa before those maps were revoked by court order,[9] was won by Republican Tom Michalski in the 2022 Wisconsin State Assembly election.

Personal life and family

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Rodriguez is married with two children and resides in Brookfield, Wisconsin.[3]

Electoral history

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Wisconsin Assembly (2020)

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Wisconsin Assembly, 13th District Election, 2020[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 3, 2020
Democratic Sara Rodriguez 19,318 50.93% +2.48%
Republican Rob Hutton (incumbent) 18,583 49.00% −2.41%
Scattering 27 0.07%
Plurality 735 1.94% -1.02%
Total votes 37,928 100.0% +17.34%
Democratic gain from Republican Swing 4.89%

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor (2022)

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Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election, 2022
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Lieutenant Governor Primary, August 9, 2022[10]
Democratic Sara Rodriguez 354,260 76.50%
Democratic Peng Her 108,766 23.49%
Democratic Angela Kennedy (write-in) 39 0.01%
Total votes 463,065 100.0 -3.70%
General Election, November 8, 2022
Democratic
1,358,774 51.15% +1.61pp
Republican
1,268,535 47.75% −0.69pp
Independent
  • Joan Ellis Beglinger (withdrawn)
  • N/A
 27,198 1.02% N/A
Write-in 1,983 0.08% +0.04pp
Plurality 90,239 3.40% +2.30pp
Total votes 2,656,490 100.0% -0.63%
Democratic hold

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Beck, Molly (November 8, 2021). "Democratic state lawmaker running for lieutenant governor". www.jsonline.com. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Tu, Oscar (October 5, 2020). "An Interview with Sara Rodriguez". Sister District Project. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Sara Rodriguez State Assembly". Sara Rodriguez State Assembly. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  4. ^ Canvass Results for 2012 Presidential and General Election – 11/6/2012 (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Government Accountability Board. December 26, 2012. p. 11. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Canvass Results for 2016 General Election – 11/8/2016 (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Elections Commission. December 22, 2016. p. 11. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Beck, Molly; Marley, Patrick (October 30, 2020). "Democrats have Republicans on the defensive in the traditionally conservative Milwaukee suburbs". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Canvass Results for 2020 General Election – 11/3/2020 (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Elections Commission. November 18, 2020. p. 10. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  8. ^ Beck, Molly (November 3, 2020). "Preliminary results from Wisconsin legislative races show Democrats flip two Assembly seats, Republicans flip two Senate seats". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  9. ^ Chen, Daphne; Schumacher, Yuriko (April 22, 2022). "See how Wisconsin redistricting changes your voting map". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  10. ^ Canvass Results for 2022 Partisan Primary (PDF) (Report). Wisconsin Elections Commission. August 26, 2022. p. 2. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
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Wisconsin State Assembly
Preceded by Member of the Wisconsin Assembly
from the 13th district
2021–2023 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
2022 		Most recent
Political offices
Preceded by Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
2023–present 		Incumbent
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