WI State Representative Angelina Cruz

Happy Pride month, Racine!

🌈 Pride Month is a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, reflect on the progress that has been made, and recommit ourselves to building a community where everyone feels welcome and respected.

Observed each June, Pride Month traces its roots to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal moment that helped spark the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. Since then, significant strides have been made toward equality, but the pursuit of dignity, acceptance, and opportunity for all continues.

Mayor Cory Mason has officially proclaimed June 2026 as Pride Month in the City of Racine. As a community, we recognize that our strength comes from embracing people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences.

This month, we celebrate our LGBTQIA+ residents, neighbors, family members, friends, and colleagues, and reaffirm our commitment to making Racine a place where everyone can feel seen, safe, and valued.

Happy Pride Month, Racine. 🌈

Where Leadership Meets Community Action.

WI State Representative Angelina Cruz of Assembly District 62 says, “With rising costs and depressed wages, more people are struggling than ever. I appreciate all Racine Kenosha Community Action Agency does to support our community”

Thank you WI State Representative Angelina Cruz for supporting Community Action!

Wisconsin Democrats are building momentum in the State Legislature, and we’re already preparing priorities for the next legislative session. But we can’t do that effectively without hearing directly from you — the people we represent.

Your voice matters. As we begin shaping our agenda for the 2027–2029 biennium, I want to know what issues are most important to you, your family, and our community in the vibrant Assembly District 62.

Please take a few moments to share your thoughts and help guide the work ahead for Wisconsin: http://WorkingForWlsurvey.org

For 17 years, Wisconsin’s minimum wage has stayed frozen at $7.25 while the cost of living keeps rising. In Racine County, a true living wage is now over $21/hour.

I was proud to cohost a Living Wage Town Hall with Racine Educators United and Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Organization to discuss a bill to raise Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $20/hour living wage by 2030.

As a union president and representative of a working-class district, I hear every day from families working multiple jobs and still struggling to afford basics. This bill is about dignity, fairness, and making sure working people can actually afford to live in the communities they serve.

When workers thrive, our communities thrive. See 🔗 for article.

For 17 years, Wisconsin workers have been stuck at a $7.25 minimum wage while the cost of housing, groceries, childcare, transportation, and healthcare keeps rising. In Racine County today, a true living wage is over $21/hour.

As both a State Rep and union president, I have heard from workers juggling 2 or 3 jobs, parents skipping meals so their kids can eat, and educators, service workers, and caregivers struggling just to stay afloat in the communities they serve.

That’s why I was proud to cohost a Living Wage Town Hall with Racine Educators United (Rea-Reaa Unity) and labor leaders from Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Organization fighting for working families across Wisconsin to discuss the need to raise Wisconsin’s minimum wage to $20/hour living wage by 2030, strengthen wages for tipped workers, protect small businesses with a gradual phase-in, and finally allow local communities like Racine to set higher standards when needed.

This is about dignity. It’s about making sure that if you work full-time in Wisconsin, you can afford to live in Wisconsin. Workers have become more productive while corporations take a bigger share of the wealth they create. A living wage is about restoring balance, strengthening unions, and building an economy that works for working people again.

Change only happens when people organize together. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

Minimum wage hike: What a potential $21.24 living wage means for Racine workers | Racine County Eye Wisconsin's minimum wage has not moved in 17 years, but the gap between what workers earn and what it actually costs to live in Racine County has grown to

As someone who serves on the Assembly Education Committee, I see firsthand the crisis facing Wisconsin public schools. Our districts need meaningful, sustainable support — not a fiscally reckless deal that would have blown a nearly $3 billion hole in the state budget while offering inadequate long-term education funding.

That’s why I voted no, and why I coauthored AB 1176 from the start of these negotiations. Our bill directly addressed the urgent needs facing public schools and property taxpayers in a fiscally responsible way — without jeopardizing Wisconsin’s future budgets.

Wisconsinites deserve solutions that strengthen schools, protect taxpayers, and keep our state on stable financial footing.

Article in comments. ⬇️

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2026
Contact: Representative Angelina Cruz
(608) 237-9162 | [email protected]


Representative Cruz to Join Living Wage Coalition Town Hall in Racine
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY, MAY 21

MADISON - State Representative Angelina Cruz (D-Racine) joins the Wisconsin Living Wage Coalition in inviting the public to a town hall meeting this week to address the current crisis in affordability and the dire need for a living wage. Cruz is the Assembly lead author on recent legislation to raise the state’s shameful $7.25/hour minimum wage to a living wage of $20/hour by 2030, index it to inflation and restore local decision-making on wages. She is a public school educator, president of Racine Educators United, and a strong advocate for labor.

“It is past time to address the intersection of rising costs and depressed wages”, Cruz said. “Whole communities are suffering state-wide from unaffordable necessities and wages far below a living wage. It should shock everyone that the state minimum wage remains unchanged since 2009.” Cruz pointed to strong support in the legislature for a living wage, with 42 co-sponsors on her bill this session.

“I see support”, she said, “and growing awareness that affordability is about wages as well as costs. Change must be informed by advocacy from people most directly affected though. I am glad to stand with the Wisconsin Living Wage Coalition as they lead a statewide campaign to get this done in the next year.”

WHAT: Wisconsin Living Wage Coalition Town Hall
WHO: Workers impacted by the current affordability crisis and Peter Rickman, Milwaukee Hospitality and Service Workers Union and Living Wage Coalition leader
WHEN: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 6:00 PM
WHERE: Racine Educators United, 1201 West Boulevard, Racine