Jessie Rodriguez

Jessie Rodriguez was born Yesenia Edelmira Garay, on July 5, 1977, in the Usulután Department, El Salvador. As a child, in 1984, she emigrated to the United States with her family, eventually settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[1] She graduated from Milwaukee's Alexander Hamilton High School in 1996 and went on to attend Milwaukee's Marquette University where she earned her bachelor's degree in communications in 2002.^[2] After graduating college, Jessie worked as an analyst for a large supermarket chain, but eventually landed a job as a communications outreach coordinator for Hispanics for School Choice.^[3]

Her prominent role in the school voucher movement in Milwaukee County made Rodriguez a close political ally of Republican county executive and later governor Scott Walker.^[4]

When the Republican Legislature drew up their redistricting plan following the 2010 U.S. census, the 21st state Assembly district—then comprising the cities of Oak Creek and South Milwaukee—was slightly adjusted, adding just a few blocks of the neighboring city of Franklin. Those few blocks of Franklin contained the home where Rodriguez then resided.^[5][6]

In August 2013, the state representative in Rodriguez's new district, Mark Honadel, announced he would resign in the middle of his term to take a job in the private sector.^[7] Governor Walker called a special election in the 21st district seat, to serve out the remainder of the 2013–2014 term. Rodriguez won the special Republican primary for the seat in October, taking 48% of the vote against a field of four opponents.^[8] In its configuration at that time, the 21st Assembly district was considered competitive but slightly Republican-leaning—Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had edged out Barack Obama in the 2012 general election by two percentage points in the district.^[4] Rodriguez slightly overperformed that benchmark in her special election, defeating Democrat Elizabeth Coppola with 56% of the vote.^[9]

She was sworn in as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly on December 4, 2013.^[10][11][12] She was re-elected without opposition at the 2014 general election and joined the Assembly Republican caucus leadership team in the 2015–2016 term as majority caucus secretary.^[13] She was comfortably re-elected in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. In the 2021–2022 legislative term, Rodriguez stepped down from her caucus leadership position and was appointed to a coveted seat on the Joint Finance Committee; Joint Finance is considered the most powerful committee in the state legislature, whose 16 members oversee all of the state's appropriations and revenues.^[14][15][16]

In 2024, Wisconsin underwent a significant redistricting which undid the Republican partisan advantage that had existed in the state since 2011. Rodriguez's district was significantly affected as the more Republican leaning areas of Franklin were removed from the district and replaced with more Democratic leaning wards from the southern reaches of the city of Milwaukee. The neighboring Democratic-leaning city of South Milwaukee was also removed from the district. Under the new maps, she won re-election for the 21st Assembly district with 51.4% of the vote, making it one of the most politically competitive districts in the State Assembly.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Jessie Garay took the last name Rodriguez when she married Aaron Rodriguez. They have one child and reside in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.^[1]