WAUWATOSA, WI – This afternoon, Representative Robyn Vining, who has represented Wisconsin’s 13th and 14th Assembly Districts since 2019, announced her candidacy for the state’s 5th Senate District. Rep. Robyn Vining has spent her time in public service fighting for Wisconsin families, adequately funded public education, ensuring that every Wisconsinite has access to affordable quality healthcare, mental healthcare, food, clean water, housing, and freedom from gun violence. She is running to bring those priorities to the state senate.
Representative Robyn Vining was joined by Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, Senators Jamie Wall (SD-30), Dora Drake (SD-4), Tim Carpenter (SD-3), Jodi Habush Sinykin (SD-8), Jeff Smith (SD-31), and Mark Spreitzer (SD-15), local leaders, and constituents across the 5th Senate District for her announcement, demonstrating the strength of her campaign and the already building momentum as we look ahead to next year’s election.
Read below for Rep. Robyn Vining’s full prepared remarks from this afternoon’s campaign Launch:
Hi, thank you all for being here today. I’m Robyn Vining, and–I’m running for state senate!
I want to thank you for joining me here today at Moss Universal Park, a park that’s being planned and built to be a universally inclusive park–an accessible park, for everybody. A park where people with varying mobility can push their children on swings, wander the woods, play sports, enjoy their grandchildren, enjoy their grandparents, and people aren’t left behind or forced to watch from afar. An inclusive space where everyone can thrive.
As Democrats, we talk about creating a world that works for everyone, a world where everyone is welcome, a world where everyBODY can thrive. And that’s the kind of world I want us to build together–a world that lifts us up rather than holds us back. But to get there it’s going to take some construction, just like this park.
And if we want a world that works for everyone, we need a government that works for everyone. Not the special interests. Not the few and the connected. But for everyone, and that’s the world I want to fight for. That’s the world we all deserve.
And when we flip this senate seat, and we win the majority, we will work hard to create that world. We will move closer to a government that works for everyone, to help make a world that works for everyone, more specifically, a Wisconsin that works for everyone.
I’m announcing my run to flip the state senate today, to build a better government, but this story began over a decade ago. My story in Wisconsin politics began when my family and I marched around the state Capitol to fight back against Republicans’ divide and conquer politics, and their attacks on educators, workers, and public education. I wasn’t a politician. I had never run for office. I had never even considered running for office. I was a mom who wanted to build a better world for my kids–and your kids–and I am still that mom today.
I marched around the Capitol in 2011 because I was a mother who wanted better for my children. I wanted them to have great schools. I wanted them to live free from gun violence. I wanted them to have quality, affordable healthcare. And I wanted to work for a better world for my kids.
Over the last 15 years, my mission hasn’t changed, but my kids grew up. My kids grew up under the Republican cuts to education. Their teachers fought for them, and juggled admirably to do more with less. But the losses were felt–my family felt those losses, alongside so many other families. No kid–and no school–deserved those losses.
My kids are grown, but my fight isn’t over. I am still fighting for your family as if you’re my own. After so many years of losses, of cuts, of hopes and dreams dashed, this is the moment I have good news.
After 15 years of fighting, we finally have a chance to win. The path to the Democratic majority, the path to fully funding our public schools, the path to fighting back against gun violence with meaningful reforms, the path to quality, affordable healthcare and mental healthcare and childcare runs straight through the 5th senate district. The path to a government that chooses to hear us–rather than ignore us–the path to a government that better works for everyone is before us today, and I am ready to take on this race.
This race will not be easy, but it will be worth it. Our kids are worth it. Your kids are worth it. Wisconsin’s future is worth it. And while it will be a challenge–we can do hard things. In fact, we already have.
In 2018 together we flipped the first seat on that old Republican gerrymander–it was one of the worst gerrymanders in the nation, but we beat it–together, with our rally cry, “candidates don’t beat gerrymandering, communities do”. We did that together.
Two years after winning this historically red district by less than half a percent, we defended our seat and with your help won reelection by an astounding 8 points. In 2020, as the Republican party’s top target to beat, we pulled together, united on shared values, and rejected divide and conquer politics. And we won.
And then last year, I was drawn into a Republican incumbent’s district, in a difficult year for Democrats, but our unity and our teamwork and our hard work led once again to victory–flipping a second assembly seat!
So we know how to do this. We know how to work hard, how to unify, and how to focus on the hope we share. We know how to run tough races and win.
We know how to do this, and we know why we do this. Our shared values are at the heart of our work, our mission, and this campaign. People matter, and people are worth fighting for.
It is my deeply held belief that no public servant–and no government official–should divide and conquer the very people they swore to serve. That is why I carried the Love Wins sign in protest in 2011, and why I run campaigns that reject divisive politics, and instead commit to the powerful act of uniting communities on our shared values.
We share the firm belief that every child in Wisconsin has a constitutional right to an adequately funded public education, that every Wisconsinite deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare, mental healthcare, food, clean water, and housing. That quality, safe, affordable childcare is key to our economy, and to the lives of Wisconsin families. We know that gun violence is not inevitable–it is a public health crisis, and Republican lawmakers have refused to act. Republican lawmakers have refused to act on many things, because Republican lawmakers have refused to listen to the people, Republican lawmakers have used their power in the majority to leave Wisconsinites behind.
And a government that leaves people behind, that turns its back on the people it swore to serve, that refuses postpartum women life-saving healthcare, is a government that needs to be rebuilt. Democrats need to win the majority and rebuild Wisconsin’s future–starting right here by flipping the 5th senate district.
We have won four races together. We have flipped two assembly seats. And now–together–we’re going to flip the state senate!
I am incredibly honored to be doing this work with all of you.
Forward, together!
