Jessica Seawright Will Run for Oak Creek Area Assembly District

Jessica Seawright was joined at her launch event Monday by state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). (Photo courtesy of campaign)

Jessica Seawright, a social worker, disability rights advocate and mother, launched her campaign for Assembly District 21 Monday.

All 99 Assembly seats will be up for election in 2026 and it will be the second time that legislative maps adopted in 2024 will be used. Under those maps, Democrats were able to gain 10 seats in 2024, bringing their numbers up to 45.

Their goal for 2026 is to hold all of their seats and gain at least five more in order to flip the chamber. Republicans have held the Assembly for the last 15 years.

Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) currently holds the 21st seat located in Milwaukee County, including Oak Creek and a portion of the city of Milwaukee near the Mitchell International Airport. She was first elected in a special election in November 2013, and has won reelection six times. Since 2021 she has also been a member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which is responsible for writing the state budget every two years.

Under the new maps, Rodriguez won another term in 2024 with 51% of the vote against her Democratic challenger. According to an analysis by John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University, the district leaned Democratic by 4 percentage points in the presidential election and 7 percentage points in the U.S. Senate race. Rodriguez has not yet announced her reelection campaign.

Seawright said the new legislative maps provide the opportunity to ask for more from representatives.

“I wanted more — more understanding, more presence and I decided that it was time to step up,” Seawright said.

Seawright was joined at her launch event Monday by state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). The Oak Creek venue where she made her announcement was previously part of Sinicki’s districts, before the maps changed.

Seawright said she sees the 21st as a 50-50 district.

“It’s really close, and not everyone is going to agree with me,” Seawright said. “The strength that I believe that I bring is decades of training, listening to people, understanding their perspective, understanding the impact of coming off extremely partisan, and what that does to stifle coordination, collaboration and participation of the voters of their residents in a community.”

Seawright said her family has lived in Wisconsin since 2018, first in Racine and now in the Garden District community in Milwaukee. They moved from Utah because they had family in the state who would help with caregiving and respite for her 10-year-old son.

“We have a fantastic neighborhood. I love it,” Seawright said. “We have community support. We have some great work happening in our parks,” including projects to make the spaces more accessible.

Seawright said she has been working to build a coalition over the last six months leading up to her launch and she is launching over a year out from next year’s general election in November so she has time to get to know the district.

“I want to be out there. I want to have open-ended conversations that aren’t pressured by me asking for folks’ vote before I earn it,” Seawright said. “I want to show up. I’ll be out in the community… I have the opportunity starting early to do the work that it will require to run for this office.”

Her 10-year-old son, who has complex medical needs due to a genetic condition, is the major reason she became an advocate. She joined U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin to speak out against cuts to Medicaid and told the story of her son qualifying for and receiving services through the Katie Beckett program, which helps children with disabilities access Medicaid coverage while living at home instead of being in an institution. Her son also received a waiver for children’s long term support through Medicaid. Seawright worked with the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and serves on the state’s Council for Children with Long-Term Support Needs.

“I began to have the opportunity to spend time with adult self-advocates, and that was so powerful and inspiring, and it’s motivating,” Seawright said. “You want to step up. You want to be there to make sure that your friends feel heard.”

Seawright said that she wants to work for an expansion of Badgercare — Wisconsin’s Medicaid program — even as federal changes to Medicaid by the Trump administration caused Gov. Tony Evers’ administration to declare that it is “fiscally and operationally unfeasible” to expand it due to changes in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.

“I look forward to exploring the options that make it feasible, because right now, we’re looking at folks on the marketplace having premiums increase so high that they’re going to lose access,” Seawright said.

Seawright said that fully funding public education is another of her top priorities, especially increasing the special education reimbursement that public schools receive from the state.

The special education reimbursement rate was raised to 45% under the most recent state budget passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed into law by Evers. It is the highest rate in years, but fell below what Democrats and public education advocates had called for — a 60% or even a 90% rate.

“Kids like my son, who do need various services in order to access public school, have costs that are mandated by federal protections… I’ve heard from school boards and other school leadership, teachers that it is often pulled from the general fund, and it is making it very difficult to create the inclusive educational environment that I dream of for my son,” Seawright said. “I’d really like to continue and come back to special education reimbursement.”

She said she is flexible about the size of the increase to the reimbursement.

“I look forward to building connections with local leaders, with school boards, within the state Assembly, and talking about a pathway forward that moves us up every year, that moves us on a trajectory where Wisconsin regains its prowess around supporting our kids,” Seawright said.

Her background as a social worker and her research on criminal justice inform her focus on improving community safety through treatment, prevention and alternatives to incarceration.

“I am grateful for the work of first responders, for police officers, and I’ve worked alongside correctional professionals at the juvenile and adult level, and that’s kind of where I’m coming from,” Seawright said. “I am seeing what first responders are being asked to do… My mom is an emergency room nurse, and I see what folks are going through in terms of what comes into the emergency room, and I’m dismayed by any changes moving us away from prevention services being funded.”

Jessica Seawright, social worker and disability rights advocate, launches campaign for AD 21 was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.