My name is Leah Spicer and I am running for Wisconsin State Assembly as Representative to the 51st District. I’m taking my experience as a community member, small business owner, mom, native of this district, to fight for our rural communities at the State Capitol.
I am running because I love Wisconsin and our rural communities. I care about its people, who —like me — have chosen to live here in the 51st. I have never felt more at home than right here. To me this is the most beautiful place in the world.
I believe an even more vibrant, prosperous and thriving future is possible for the 51st District. But we need to fight for it.
A brighter 51st means securing the basics for all its people. We must have access to affordable healthcare, high-quality childcare and seniorcare, investment and support for our small family farms and businesses, affordable housing, more funding for our rural public schools, access to clean, rural internet access, safe drinking water, and a plan for conserving and protecting our farmland and our natural resources. These things aren’t political, they are essential, they are common sense.
I’m running for this seat now because we need a Representative to start championing a brighter 51st today, as we face challenges like never before to our rural communities. Sometimes it feels like your life begins when your mortgage is paid off, when your kids are in school, when your business is more stable. The truth is that our lives are happening right now, people are struggling right now, and if we don’t start fighting for the future right now, then it will be too late.
When I look back at my life and I ask myself, “Did I do everything in my power to create the best future for my kids?” The answer to that question has to be yes.
I always knew that I wanted to go into public service, and I just recently became the Clerk of my town board. I feel honored to participate in politics at this hyper-local level. But at the same time I started to feel uneasy about the lack of a Democratic candidate for the 51st. As we neared closer to the deadline to get a challenger on the ballot, I felt that I had to step up. We’re at a moment when every race matters and to see a race go uncontested is not an option.
While my opponent is a decent man, he does not stand up to his party—a party that is growing further and further apart from the needs of everyday working people, a party more concerned with dividing and demolishing than uniting and building. So much is on the line right now: our rural communities and the farms and small businesses that sustain them, voting rights, fair maps, reproductive rights, sensible gun safety, a stable climate/habitable planet. This is not a time when we can sit back and see what happens. This is a time that we must stand up and fight for the rights of the people.
I was born and raised here in Clyde Township, then went to college outside the Midwest — which only solidified my love for our area and all it has to offer. After my partner Kyle and I started having kids, I felt drawn to move back to my family farm in Wisconsin. I could not imagine a better place to raise my family. I am a mom and a small business owner, we are a working-class family. We are happy in so many ways, but we face struggles too: finding childcare, paying for childcare, as well as more systemic issues like access to healthcare, underfunded public schools (and, as a result, higher taxes from referendums), the threat of climate change and its effect on farms, crumbling infrastructure, a mental health crisis, gun violence, gerrymandering, and more.
The 51st is an extremely competitive district. My opponent has held this seat for the last four terms and each election he has widened his margin of victory. In order to win I will need your help. You can donate money, send an email to your contact list, talk to your friends and neighbors, talk to your community at the local farmers market, and share my posts on social media. You can ask your journalist friend to do a story on me, volunteer to knock doors or phone bank, and invite me to an event that you are putting on. You can wear a t-shirt with my name on it, or a button, you can put up a yard sign. If we flip this seat, this victory will not belong to me, it will belong to each and everyone of you who joins me in this fight. When we win, I will work as hard as I possibly can for you—all of you, every single resident of the 51st District.
My partner Kyle and I live in Clyde Township with our three small children, on the same 40 acre farm that I grew up on. We own a locally-focused restaurant in Spring Green that has provided 15 living-wage jobs to the community. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to support local farms by purchasing meat, grains and produce from right here in our region.
