CHAIR — Alexia Sabor
Nominee statement: It has been an honor to lead our county party for the last two years. In that time I helped to build the most diverse Executive Board Dane Dems has ever had and we turned out a record-breaking number of voters to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In my next term, I will work hard to ensure the county party turns out every blue vote in Dane County in support of Tony Evers and a Democratic replacement for Ron Johnson and continue to build a more inclusive party by strengthening our ties with communities of color and residents of more rural areas.
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treasurer — jenna jacobson
Nominee statement: Jenna Jacobson has been on the Dane Dems Executive Board for the past two years serving as the 80th Assembly District Representative and the Resolutions Chair. With her experience in personal finance and various campaign treasurer duties, she is excited to continue the work of the current treasurer.
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SECRETARY — Meghan Parker
Nominee statement:
I am honored to be nominated again to be Secretary of the Dane Dems for another term. Having served in this position since 2013, I cannot think of a more crucial time to be involved with our party. Since we have been forced to be apart during our many successes of 2020, I am looking forward to gathering with our dedicated community in the future and fighting for our shared Democratic values.
I am a recent alum of Edgewood College, with a major in Communication Studies and a minor in Political Science. I have managed, interned, and volunteered on multiple local, state, and national campaigns. I also enjoy being active with my neighborhood team, the Oregon Area Progressives. After politics, my second passion is theater and I always look forward to visiting American Players Theatre in the summertime.
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vice-chair of communications — amani latimer-burris
Nominee statement: I’m so excited for the opportunity to serve and help grow the Democratic Party of Dane County.
I am running for the Vice President/Communications Chair to listen and hear; to find ways to engage and work together to share information with all of us, no matter where you land on the political spectrum within our party.
I got involved in the Democratic Party a few years ago after being invited in by our own Jane Kashnig who graciously invited me to come back after I stumbled, sort to speak, into the room. For this, I’m forever grateful.
I started out my career as a journalist and have gone on to work in the Wisconsin State Senate, on coalition building, in grassroots outreach and on issues advocacy for a number of entities, from a local to a national level.
I look forward to taking what I have learned and use it to help build and grow our party with you, together, United In Our Differences as I like to say.
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Vice-Chair of membership — gloria reyes
Nominee statement: Gloria Reyes has committed her career to public service, currently serving as CEO of Briarpatch Youth Services.
In 2018, Gloria pursued her political aspirations and was elected to the Madison School Board as the first Latina to serve in this role and serving as President of the Madison School Board. Gloria is co-founder and president of Adelante, a political action group aimed to prepare and support candidates of color to run for political office.
In 2019, Gloria started her consulting business Reyes Public Safety, serving as a consultant for National League of Cities and Race Forward on race and equity in law enforcement. Gloria developed a racial equity organizational justice model for police organizations and badge of equity training curriculum. Reyes Public Safety focuses on innovative approaches to solving complex public safety challenges.
In 2014, Gloria was appointed to serve as Deputy Mayor for the City of Madison. As Deputy Mayor, She was responsible for several departments that included Public Safety, Community Services, Public Health, Civil Rights, and served as Education Liaison. Gloria had oversight of the Racial Equity Social Justice Initiative for the City of Madison, that involved building the infrastructure, training and capacity around racial equity within city government operations.
Gloria served as a Law Enforcement Officer for the City of Madison Police Department for 13 years. Gloria is founder of Amigos en Azul (Friends in Blue) comprised of officers dedicated to dissolving cultural barriers and building trust between the City of Madison Police Department and the Latino Community. Gloria began and lead the Diversity & Inclusion team comprised of a diverse group of employees to review and assess the Madison Police Departments through a racial equity lens and diversity efforts to address barriers in employment, development or promotional opportunities.
Gloria was raised in Madison attending Madison East High School and the University of Wisconsin Madison where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Behavioral Science & Law and Criminal Justice and a Masters in Public Administration with a focus on race, equity and policing. She completed the National Association of Chiefs of Police Association Leadership in Police Organization training.
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vice-chair of campaigns — noah lieberman
Nominee statement: I have been honored to serve as the Vice Chair of Campaigns for the past four years. Throughout my tenure, I have worked to expand the scope of our endorsement process. We now actively reach out to candidates across the county and have dramatically increased the number of candidates endorsed each year, earning progressive victories in cities and towns that formerly had no Democratic representation. We have also reframed the process through lenses of diversity and equity, helping us better recruit and support candidates of color.
We’ve also improved the process for our membership by increasing transparency. We have introduced written questionnaires so members can get a better sense of the candidates we endorse, and have held listening sessions to get feedback on the process.
If reelected, my focus will be building upon these successes and strengthening our relationship with our endorsed elected officials. Elected officials should be considering our viewpoint on key issues during their entire term, not just during election cycles. We are in a fantastic position to turn the influence we’ve built up over the years into real, tangible change for the people of this county, and I would be honored to help lead that process.
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vice-chair of development — ryan sendelbach
Nominee statement: I write to express my interest in being re-elected as Vice-Chair of Development for the Democratic Party of Dane County. I firmly believe that the more people get involved, the better democracy works. The grassroots work done by groups like Dane County Democrats is critical to making Democracy accessible to everyone. Because of this, I am committed to doing as much as I can to contribute to the essential work of this organization.
My work in Democratic politics began at the lowest level when I was elected as a precinct co- chair in my Minnesota neighborhood. That position led me to accept a full-time job in organizing during the 2016 election. As an organizer, I helped more Minnesotans sign up to vote by mail than any other organizer in the State at that time. In 2018, I was elected as a treasurer of my Senate District, which is the Minnesota equivalent of a Wisconsin County Party. As treasurer, I worked with the District chair to manage every aspect of the District’s finances including planning and assisting with fundraising and stewardship efforts.
I also have professional experience in fundraising from my work at the University of Minnesota Law School. In that position, I was responsible for fund management and stewardship for the Law School’s entire multi-million-dollar fundraising operation. My job mainly focused on finding innovative ways to retain and motivate current donors. However, I was also involved in the Law School’s fundraising efforts by assisting with writing solicitations and developing giving incentives.
During my short tenure as Vice-Chair, I have already begun work on increasing membership retention. I hope to continue with these and other fundraising activities to ensure that we have the funding we need to win in 2022 and beyond. Thank you for your consideration
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vice-chair of nominations and elections — michael bell
Nominee statement: Can a small, all-volunteer, local organization change the world? Yes, it can. Yes, it must.
Because that’s us. We Dane Dems are at ground zero in the bomb that is being dropped on democracy.
In the 2020 presidential race, Joe Biden won Dane County by over 180,000 votes – about 35,000 more than Hilary Clinton’s margin of victory in Dane County. Biden won Wisconsin by 20,682 votes. He won Wisconsin because of us!
But politics isn’t only about turnout. My belief is that most fundamentally it’s about relationships.
Relationships is what I’ve focused on while I’ve been on the Dane Dems board these last five years. I’ve worked to organize meetings with community groups about food systems, climate change, labor, and healthcare. I’ve worked to turn these relationships into new members, and new board members, that better reflect the diversity of our community and its concerns.
We need to put the dem back in democracy. To do that, we need to put the our back in power. We do it by building the relationships that put the us back in the USA.
Can a small, all-volunteer, local organization change the world? Yes we can. Yes we must. Yes we will.
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vice-chair of volunteers — tom martinson
Nominee statement: Hi my name is Thomas Martinson, my pronouns are he/him, I am native of Stoughton and a lifelong volunteer. My first job was handing out lit to students for Tammy Baldwin’s first Congressional Campaign in 1998. I would go on to knock on doors, make calls, and hand out lit for Feingold, Doyle and Baldwin again before 2010 when I worked as a Deputy Field Organizer for the Illinois Democratic Campaign Coordinated Committee. I also served as Canvass Captain that year and trained dozens of volunteers to knock doors and fill out VAN sheets. Since 2016, I have managed three local City Council Campaigns in Madison, Fitchburg and Middleton. I was an active member of Madison’s Teal Team and, until I recently moved, had managed their social media presence on Facebook for the last three years.
As Vice Chair of Volunteers, I would continue the work that has already been done to make our Action Teams the pride of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. I would pay particular attention to action teams such as those in Stoughton, Waunakee, and Deforest, amongst others increasing communication and coordination with the county party ahead of the 2022 elections.
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37th Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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38th Assembly district rep — jean clark
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42nd Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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46th Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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47th Assembly district rep — Carolyn Clow
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48th assembly district Rep — derek wallace
Nominee statement: As a native Madisonian, I’ve always taken an interest in politics – it’s hard not to when you grow up in Dane County. But for many years, aside from being a regular voter, I was essentially a political observer. That changed when I started working for Dane County and became a member of my union, AFSCME Local 720. As I became more involved with my union, it became apparent how significant an impact local government entities can have on the residents of their communities.
Since then, I have participated in dozens of candidate interviews for local and statewide offices by serving as a delegate to the AFL-CIO’s South Central Federation of Labor and participating in their endorsement process. More recently, I was elected as the Secretary of AFSCME PEOPLE Dane County, AFSCME’s political action committee. And of course, I have knocked on hundreds of doors and made hundreds of phone calls to support the progressive candidates these organizations have endorsed.
I look forward to bringing my experience and enthusiasm to the Assembly District 48 Representative Seat and to further grow and learn from fellow members and leaders within the Dane Dems organization. Thank you for your consideration.
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49th Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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76th Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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77th Assembly district rep — [no nominee]
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78th assembly district rep — michelle dunphy
Nominee statement: In the past four years, I have had the honor to work for you as your Vice Chair of Volunteers and am so proud of what the teams have accomplished. I felt it was time for a new voice in that role, but I am excited to continue serving the Dane Dems community as your future AD Rep for the 78th district. For those of you who don’t know me, like many of us, I got involved volunteering the moment I moved to Wisconsin in early 2017. I was angry and disheartened by what the GOP was doing to our country. I still am, which is why I work hard to make sure Democrats are elected to office! Next year is another very important year and I look forward to serving the community in this new role. Thank you.
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79th Assembly district rep — april kigeya
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80th assembly district rep — Amanda peterson
Nominee statement: I live in the 80th AD and have been a member of the Oregon Area Progressives since 2008. I joined the Democratic party in 2015 and have participated in canvasses, phone banks, events, and fundraisers for candidates up and down the ballot. In 2018, I was elected to the Village of Oregon Board, and I currently serve as Vice President of the Board. I work as an Organizer for the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition to end gerrymandering and pass a nonpartisan legislative redistricting process. I hope that my experience and time will benefit the Dane Dems Executive Board. Thank you!