MCTEditor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles profiling state legislators serving the Chippewa Valley.
Those who have worked with state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Eau Claire, describe her as someone who is passionate, hard-working and sacrificing.
“(Vinehout) is such an amazing woman,” senior Hannah Lott said. “She knows what she wants and has a strong sense of direction.”
Lott spent last semester helping the Buffalo County dairy farmer make the run for office.
Before becoming a full-time dairy farmer in the early 1990s, Vinehout attended St. Louis University, graduating with her master’s degree in public health and later a doctoral degree in health services research. She then taught at the University of Illinois-Springfield for 10 years before beginning her life as a dairy farming in Wisconsin.
This past year, Vinehout gave up her duties on the farm to make a run for state senator.
“She really put her life on the line,” Lott said. “She gave up being a farmer, even selling her cows for the campaign.”
Campaign manager Andrew Werthmann described Vinehout’s campaign as being one that is run in a “different way.”
“When it comes down to getting the votes, it is the personal connections you make with the people,” Werthmann said. “And the trust that you gain.”
Now that Vinehout is in office, she said she plans to make health care reform one of her top priorities.
“As a farmer without health insurance, I know firsthand the struggles families go through,” Vinehout said in an e-mail.
Vinehout has been appointed chairwoman of the Agriculture and Higher Education Committee as well as the vice chairwoman the Health and Human Services Committee, where she will be able to oversee the proposals of health care reform.
“Real people are suffering and dying because of preventable diseases,” she said in the e-mail. “We can do better, and we are starting now.”
