Deb Andraca

Deb Andraca

Candidate for Assembly District 23

Candidate Information

Candidate Biography

I am a wife, a mother, a teacher, and an active community volunteer. I’ve worked for large international companies, political campaigns, trade associations and non-profit organizations. I’ve spent 17 years in our district working hard to make our neighborhoods better for our families, but I believe that things are headed in the wrong direction. My career began in politics. After graduating from Syracuse University, I moved to Washington DC where I worked for the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group of large and small renewable energy companies. While working full-time I earned my master’s degree in political management at George Washington University. When my husband’s career moved us to Chicago, then Houston, and then finally Milwaukee, I was a press secretary on a Congressional re-election campaign, a communications director and lobbyist at the Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest, and a Vice President at FleishmanHillard Public Relations. After many years as a stay at home mom, I went back to school for my teacher’s license. While substitute teaching, I experienced a lockdown drill in my kids’ school for the first time. The lights were turned off, students were gathered away from doors and windows, and the entire classroom of third graders was totally silent. Dead silent. It was incredibly frightening for all of us in the classroom. We should not have to live this way, and so I decided to take action. For many years, as a constituent, I tried to convince Representative Jim Ott to support common-sense gun laws. To take action to prevent climate change. To support our public schools and teachers. To ensure all Wisconsin families had access to affordable, high-quality health care. Most of my calls, letters and meeting requests were ignored. So I decided that if I can’t change our Representative’s MIND, I would have to change his JOB. And I believe I am the right person to do it. When my kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom with my daughters, I tried to do as much as I could to improve our community. I led two Girl Scout troops, volunteered at our local school, hosted fundraisers for the Urban Ecology Center, and served as PTO board member and president. As my daughters got older and more independent, I started taking classes at Alverno College to earn my teacher’s license and became active with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. All of these experiences — professional and volunteer, political and academic — have prepared me to represent the 23rd district in Madison. I promise to work hard on behalf of all of the families in Grafton, Thiensville, Mequon, Bayside, Fox Point and Whitefish Bay. I am so happy that my daughter, Mia, will turn 18 just a few weeks before election day, and her very first vote will be for her Mom. She jokes that I have to EARN her vote — just like I hope to earn your vote on November 3rd.

Source: From candidate website