Greta Neubauer

 ( 1991 Births ) 

In November 2017, Mason won a special election to become mayor of Racine and announced he would resign his seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Neubauer quickly declared her candidacy to succeed him as representative of the 66th Assembly district. She faced a contested primary for the Democratic Party nomination against first-term Racine alderman The recently approved Foxconn project was highlighted by both candidates, each promising to work to bring more benefits of the project to the residents of the city; Neubauer notably broke with her former boss, Mason, over his vote in favor of the plan. Neubauer prevailed in the December 2017 primary, receiving 53.8% of the vote. She was unopposed in the January special election and took her oath of office on January 27, 2018; her oath was administered by Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Shirley Abrahamson in a public ceremony at the Racine Public Library.

Days before Neubauer's swearing-in, her portrait appeared in a collage on the cover of the January 29 issue of TIME magazine. The story highlighted the surge in first-time female candidates running for office following the 2016 presidential election. That fall, she won re-election to a full term without opposition.

Neubauer quickly rose within the ranks of the Democratic caucus. She was appointed to the Governor's Task Force on Climate Change by new governor Tony Evers in the fall of 2019. After winning her second full term in 2020, she was appointed to a coveted seat on the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. This was also a particularly important time for the work of that committee as the state experienced an influx of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Neubauer's leadership and management skills were significantly tested in the 2023–2024 term. Democrats in Wisconsin had been held to a minority of seats in the Assembly and state Senate since the passage of gerrymandered legislative maps in 2011, but usually had a comfortable margin to protect vetoes issued by Democratic governor Tony Evers. That changed after the 2022 redistricting—carried out by the Wisconsin Supreme Court—which implemented an even more severe gerrymander. Following the 2022 election, Republicans gained a supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate and came within two seats of a supermajority in the Assembly, creating the real risk that the legislature could enact policy by overriding the governor's veto. As minority leader in the Assembly, Neubauer made it a priority to protect the governor's vetoes—that meant holding her caucus united against all veto override votes; it also meant carefully coordinating schedules and absences to avoid a surprise veto override when Democratic members were unavailable for floor votes. The Assembly minority successfully protected Evers's vetoes for the entire regular legislative session, but they remain on alert for the possibility that an extraordinary session could be called in the waning months of the term.

In 2023, a new majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the legislative gerrymander and a new map was adopted in 2024. Neubauer's district was significantly reconfigured. Prior to this redistricting, most of the city of Racine was packed into the 66th district, making the district overwhelmingly Democratic. Under the new plan, Racine was divided between the 62nd district in the north and the 66th district in the south, creating two competitive but Democratic-leaning districts. The new 66th Assembly district also contains the suburban village of Mount Pleasant and the neighboring village of Sturtevant.

Neubauer faced a serious general election challenge in 2024 from Mount Pleasant village president David DeGroot, who has been one of the leading proponents of the Foxconn in Wisconsin project. Neubauer prevailed with 53%, finishing about 2,300 votes ahead of DeGroot.