Kathleen Vinehout

Vinehout directed both the graduate and undergraduate programs in health administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield, serving for ten years. She was a member of the faculty and teaching in the Health Services Administration and Women’s Studies Programs. Her academic work focused on state health policy, the history of health care reform and health problems facing rural communities.

In June 2017 Vinehout officially registered a committee for the 2018 Wisconsin governor election.

Vinehout insists on a $15 an hour minimum wage, changing Truth in Sentencing standards, offering treatment alternatives to prison, providing mental health services, improving inner city public schools, and expanding home ownership. She believes that President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing holds the steps toward building trust between our citizens and law enforcement.

In January 2014, Senator Vinehout announced she would not run for Governor of Wisconsin because of injuries she received in a car accident in Racine County, Wisconsin in December 2013.

Vinehout was a candidate in the Democratic Primary during the 2012 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Recall Election. She garnered four percent of the vote, coming in third.

During the protests in Wisconsin, Vinehout, along with the 13 other Democratic State Senators, left the state to deny the State Senate a quorum on Governor Scott Walker's controversial "Budget Repair" legislation. She returned to the State of Wisconsin on March 12, 2011.

Vinehout believes that Wisconsin public schools need to be funded more by state money instead of property taxes and that the state needs to fix its school funding formula that representatives from both parties have described as "broken." On her website, she says that "Despite increases in the Governor's election-year budget, schools haven't recovered from the massive cuts in state aid in 2011. In real dollars, schools will be getting less in the next two years than a decade ago." In her alternative budget, she eliminates corporate tax breaks and cash payments and uses that money to pay for public education.

Vinehout was the chair of the Democratic Party of Buffalo County and served on the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission and the Alma Chamber of Commerce. In 2005, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin awarded her with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for her work in grassroots organizing. On November 2, 2010, Vinehout was reelected to the Wisconsin Senate beating Ed Thompson. On November 9, 2010, with only 352 votes separating the two candidates, Thompson asked for a recount. On November 19, 2010, Thompson conceded the election to Vinehout.

A bill very similar to the one Kathleen proposed passed in the Wisconsin state budget in 2010 with the backing of Planned Parenthood.

In 2010, the most recent year for which information is available, Vinehout received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. However, she has disagreed with their policies on many occasions. She supports increased background checks, banning bump stocks, and a continuation of the ban on fully automatic weapons.

In 2009, Planned Parenthood revoked its endorsement of Kathleen when she authored an amendment to a reproductive rights bill that was designed to ensure access to birth control. Under the original bill, pharmacists would be required to fill prescriptions for abortion medication regardless of their religious beliefs. Sen. Vinehout claimed that such language violated the Wisconsin constitution, which states that no "control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience be permitted " and authored an amendment to the bill that allowed pharmacists to conscientiously object as long as they ensured that the patient would be able to receive the abortion drugs.

Vinehout was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 2006, defeating Republican Incumbent Ron Brown. She was reelected in 2010 and 2014.

After working in academia, Vinehout worked as the primary operator of the family's fifty-cow dairy farm. The farm had a rolling herd average of 21,000 pounds of milk and received many quality milk awards. Vinehout's family farm in Alma is certified organic and produces hay and grain. Vinehout was president of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Buffalo County, Wisconsin for several years and represented the district at statewide meetings. She also assisted the Wisconsin Farmers Union in agriculture and dairy policy and worked part-time in 2005 as an advocate at the state capitol for the Farmers Union. She served on the Buffalo County Agricultural Fair Association Board and the Buffalo County Farm Bureau Board. Vinehout was formerly a member of the Wisconsin Holstein Association and she and her family have shown cattle at district shows.

Kathleen Vinehout (born June 16, 1958) is a former Democratic member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 31st district since 2007. She was an unsuccessful primary candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in the 2012 recall election against Scott Walker as well as the 2018 election.

Vinehout was born on June 16, 1958 in Albany, New York and grew up in Aurora, Illinois. Her father was a laborer and her mother a registered nurse, and both served in the United States Air Force. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Southern Illinois University in 1980, a Master of Public Health from St. Louis University in 1982, and a PhD in Health Services Research from St. Louis University in 1987. She also received an associate degree in agriculture from the Lincoln Land Community College in 1992.