Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, announced today she won’t seek reelection this fall, saying it was time to put her family first after two decades in the Legislature.

Shilling said her two children are now in high school and middle school and “time with our boys at home is fading.”

“I do not leave with regrets, I leave with wonder – wonder about the future, about what will be,” Shilling said. “Wonder about what lies ahead, and a wonder of new ways that I will continue to be able to serve my community, and others.”

Shilling, 50, beat then-GOP Sen. Dan Kapanke, of La Crosse, in a 2011 recall election to claim the Senate seat after 11 years in the Assembly. Her fellow Dem senators then elected her minority leader starting with the 2015 session as she navigated the caucus through the final term of GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the first two years of Dem Gov. Tony Evers.

Kapanke has already announced plans to run again for the seat, which is a top target for Republicans this fall.

 

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