Janet Bewley (born November 10, 1951) is an American politician and former Democratic minority leader in the

Wisconsin State Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...

. She has been a member of the Wisconsin Senate since 2015, and previously served four years in the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

, representing

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

, Ashland, Bayfield, and

Price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...

counties.

Biography

Born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Ohio, Bewley graduated from Cleveland's James Ford Rhodes High School in 1969, and earned her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from Case Western Reserve University. She was the first member of her family to graduate from college, and went on to earn a Master's in Academic Administration from the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

in 1977. She was elected to the

in 2010, replacing Gary Sherman (who did not seek re-election). Before being elected to the Assembly, she served on the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

of Ashland. She is a former community relations officer for the

Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Mich ...

. On December 16, 2013 Bewley announced her intention to run for the

Wisconsin Senate, District 25 The 25th Senate District of Wisconsin is one of 33 districts in the Wisconsin State Senate. Located in northwest Wisconsin, the district comprises all of Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Price, and Washburn counties, and p ...

, to replace retiring Senator Robert Jauch, also a Democrat. She won the primary election with 72% of the vote, and was opposed by Republican Dane Deutsch (Jauch's 2010 opponent) in the November general election. Her old seat was contested by Democrat

Beth Meyers Beth Meyers (born May 29, 1959) is an American social worker and Democratic politician. She has been a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 74th Assembly district, in northern Wisconsin, since 2015. Biography Born in Bayfi ...

and Republican Jamey Francis in the November 2014 general election. On November 4, 2014, Bewley was elected to the

, and Meyers was elected to Bewley's old Assembly seat. On April 24, 2020, the Wisconsin Senate Democratic Caucus chose Bewley as their new leader after the resignation of Senator

Jennifer Shilling Jennifer Shilling ('' née'' Ehlenfeldt; born July 4, 1969) is an American Democratic politician, lobbyist, and former state legislator. She was a member of the Wisconsin State Senate for nine years and was senate minority leader from 2015 to 2 ...

from that role. On July 22, 2022, Bewley was involved in a fatal car crash. She drove her car out of a public beach to turn east onto U.S. Highway 2. Her car was struck by a vehicle driven by 27-year-old Alyssa Ortman which was driving west at roughly 100 mph. Ortman's car was forced across the highway and hit a third car that was traveling east. Both Ortman and her five-year-old daughter were killed in the crash. An electronic cigarette containing Delta-8-THC was found in Ortman's possession. Bewley was talking on the phone with a reporter from the '' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' at the time of the crash, and had had eye surgery the day before.

References

External links

Profile
at the

Wisconsin Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...

Senate directory page from 2019
* *
Campaign website
* , - 1951 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Case Western Reserve University alumni Living people People from Ashland, Wisconsin Politicians from Cleveland University of Maine alumni Democratic Party Wisconsin state senators Women state legislators in Wisconsin Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly {{Wisconsin-WISenate-stub