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Committee
Friends of David Sanchez
Campaign Phone
414-215-0411
Education
Harvard Law School
Personal Pronouns
he/him
If Democrats secure a trifecta in November, we will have a short window to pass critical legislation that will lay a foundation for Wisconsin’s long term prosperity. This includes immediately securing sufficient funding for public schools (including raising the special ed reimbursement rate), expanding Medicaid, and implementing a statewide paid family/medical leave program. It also means building toward Wisconsin’s clean energy future, reducing the cost of childcare and affordable housing construction, and passing a statewide regulation of new AI data centers. As a lawyer and former state supreme court law clerk, I have the legal skillset and experience to help the Democratic caucus craft strong laws that will withstand legal challenges.
The most pressing housing issue in Wisconsin is a critical supply shortage, especially for workforce and affordable housing. To fix this, I support a balance of "push" and "pull" policies. "Push" policies remove regulatory barriers like streamlining local permitting processes and modernizing outdated zoning policies to allow for natural density. “Pull" policies offer financial incentives to spur development. My legal work includes projects utilizing Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to finance affordable apartment buildings. We could also offer state-backed, low-interest loans for smaller projects like ADUs. These push and pull policies clear a path and provide financial incentive to builders to begin to address the housing shortage.
I served as a law clerk to Justice Rebecca Dallet on the Wisconsin Supreme Court during the 2023 redistricting case that struck down the previous heavily-gerrymandered state legislative maps. That court case was a critical step towards securing fairer maps across Wisconsin, but further protections are needed to ensure that maps are not vulnerable to the type of manipulation that was seen over the last two decades. In order to ensure our maps are no longer used as a tool for party politics, it is critical that the state establish an independent redistricting commission prior to the 2030 census, and that the commission be precluded from considering partisanship in its design process.
It is critical that we secure sufficient and sustainable funding for public schools. In practice that means returning to the two-thirds state funding commitment, increasing special education reimbursement rates from their current level around 36% to between 60% and 90%, ensuring proper investment in student mental health resources including school counselors, social workers, reading specialists and special education staff. This also means preserving Wisconsin’s return to science-based early reading instruction (i.e. systematic phonics) instituted by Act 20 in 2023 and ensuring schools have sufficient resources to continue to carry out this instruction.
I support the state placing common-sense guardrails on these projects to ensure a baseline protection of our state’s health, environment and financial well-being. On data centers, I support special utility rate structures that would place the entire cost of net new energy infrastructure and production on the tech companies so Wisconsin families are never forced to subsidize any amount of energy for these projects. On both data centers and CAFOs, we need stricter permitting standards that include regular water testing, and specifically for CAFOs, stricter manure management and odor controls. While the state can’t negotiate every individual deal, we should mandate full public transparency, local notice, and expanded public input requirements.
Committee
Friends of Amy Zimmerman
Campaign Phone
2622327754
Education
Marquette University, Bachelors of Science
Personal Pronouns
she/her
My top priorities are fully funding public education, making health-, child-, and elder-care more affordable, strengthening environmental protections, and ensuring local governments serve residents effectively.
In my career, I've managed multiyear programs with budgets over $100M, worked with competing stakeholders, and built solutions in complex environments. Combined with my experience as a community volunteer, parent, and spouse of a small business owner, I bring both professional expertise and firsthand understanding of the challenges families face.
I have the experience and know-how to turn goals into plans, plans into action, and action into results.
I support a comprehensive approach that increases housing supply - expanding workforce housing programs, supporting infrastructure grants that help communities prepare sites for housing development, encouraging a wider range of housing options, and reducing unnecessary barriers that drive up costs without improving safety or quality.
I also support expansion of eldercare to help seniors stay in their communities while moving out of their long-time homes which often do not meet their needs, and first-time homebuyer assistance programs, and investments in affordable housing development.
Before the next census, I support creating an independent redistricting commission that uses clear criteria and robust public input. Districts should respect communities of interest, comply with the Voting Rights Act, and avoid drawing lines for partisan advantage. The process should be open to the public, with draft maps, public hearings, and opportunities for citizens to provide feedback before maps are finalized.
The goal of redistricting shouldn't be to create Democratic districts or Republican districts. The goal should be to create districts that accurately reflect Wisconsin's communities and give voters meaningful choices at the ballot box.
First, I would support increasing the state's commitment to K-12 funding, with a particular focus on improving special education reimbursement so districts are not forced to absorb disproportionate costs locally.
Second, invest in resources that improve outcomes: early intervention programs, reading and math support, school-based mental health services, and tools that help educators identify and address learning needs early.
Third, support & retain educators and special education professionals by reducing administrative burdens and improving working conditions so schools can focus more time on students and less time on paperwork.
Finally, we should ensure accountability for positive outcomes while maintaining local flexibility.
- Robust, transparent environmental & water-impact assessments before projects are approved, including cumulative impacts on groundwater.
- Local governments should have meaningful authority in siting decisions, with standards that prevent large-scale projects from being imposed without adequate local input and planning.
- Developers must be responsible for the infrastructure costs their projects create (roads, water systems, energy upgrades, and emergency services) so those costs don’t fall on local property taxpayers.
- Strengthen ongoing monitoring and reporting requirements so communities know whether promises are being met over time.
