Madison – State Representative Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) has been named Elected Official of the Year by AFT-Wisconsin. AFT-Wisconsin is a federation of local unions across the state and represents teachers, faculty and staff in the UW system and Wisconsin technical college system faculty, state workers, and public defenders. Rep. Cruz is a public school educator and has served as president of Racine Educators United for the past decade. During her first term in state office she has championed fully funding public schools through every available channel: in the local community, in the media, serving on the Assembly Education Committee, and on the Assembly floor. Her priorities include labor rights, including collective bargaining, and she is the lead Assembly author of Living Wage legislation, raising the state’s disgraceful minimum wage.
AFT-Wisconsin President Jon Shelton pointed to Cruz’s experience and the importance of her work as a first-term legislator this session. “It’s not often we have one of our own elected to represent Wisconsinites in the legislature, but that’s exactly what we got in 2024 when Racine Educators United President Angelina Cruz ran for State Assembly. AFT-Wisconsin proudly endorsed Angelina that year, and she has been a fierce advocate for our values: fully funding public schools and enhancing workers rights.”
Shelton also noted Cruz’s efforts in rallying opposition to the 2025 budget, stating “… our members were so impressed with the way Rep. Cruz fought for our shared priorities and helped to organize coalitions inside and outside the Capitol. We continue to work with her office to make sure we won’t miss the opportunity this fall’s election will provide to bring transformative labor legislation. Rep. Cruz is the true representation for how we unions and elected officials should be co-governing in Wisconsin, and AFT-Wisconsin is thrilled to honor her work by acknowledging her as our elected official of the year.”
“It means a great deal to receive recognition from people who know what the fight is, why it is, and what it takes,” Cruz stated, “people who’ve experienced the harm to public sector unions and to the people and communities we serve since one-sided Republican rule began in 2011. I’m deeply honored by this award from fellow union activists. Act 10 is the reason I became more involved in my union and assumed a leadership role. I ran for Assembly in 2024 because we must fully fund our public schools, stop diverting money to a separate and unaccountable system and I needed to do everything humanly possible toward those ends.”
