Mike Colona (born 1969) is an American attorney and politician who served as a member of the

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

from 2009 to 2017. Before redistricting, Colona represented the 67th district. Colona more recently represented the 80th district, which is centered on the Tower Grove South area within the city of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Colona also served as the House

minority whip The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holdin ...

for the 96th General Assembly.

Early life and education

Mike Colona was born in

in 1969. He is a 1987 graduate of

Fox High School Fox High School is a public high school located in Arnold, Missouri that is part of the Fox School District. Approximately 2,000 students are currently enrolled. The school is named for Charles Fox, who once owned the land where the campus was ...

Arnold, Missouri Arnold is the largest city in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States and is also a suburb of St. Louis. The population was 20,850, at the 2020 United States Census. History The first European settler in Arnold was Jean Baptiste Gamache, wh ...

. Colona earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree from

Truman State University Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a public university in Kirksville, Missouri. It had 4,225 enrolled students in the fall of 2021 pursuing degrees in 52 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs. The university is named for U.S. Presid ...

and a Juris Doctor from St. Louis University.

Career

A lawyer in private practice, he specializes in personal injury, worker's compensation and some

first amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

cases. Colona was also an adjunct professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. He was one of three openly-

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

legislators in Jefferson City, alongside Jolie Justus (D– Kansas City) and

Jeanette Mott Oxford Jeanette Mott Oxford (born July 16, 1954) is an American activist and politician from Missouri. She is a currently the Executive Director of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare, after having served as a member of the Missouri House of Rep ...

(D–St. Louis). In August 2008, Colona defeated four other Democratic challengers in the primary to replace term-limited Representative Mike Daus. Colona won with nearly 43 percent of the vote. Colona was unopposed in the November 2008 general election. In the 2010 general election, Colona handily defeated

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

challenger Curtis Farber with 82-percent of the vote to win a second term. Colona was a member of the

American Legislative Exchange Council The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United State ...

(ALEC), resigning in 2012. Doing so, he said " LECis not the innocuous, bipartisan organization it purports to be. Their agenda is radical and wrong for Missouri."

Personal life

Colona is openly gay and both his 2008 and 2010 campaigns won the support of the

Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund The LGBTQ Victory Fund (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund), commonly shortened to Victory Fund, is an American political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBTQ public officials in the United States. Victory F ...

References

External links

Campaign website
1969 births 21st-century American politicians Gay politicians LGBT state legislators in Missouri Living people Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives Politicians from St. Louis Saint Louis University alumni Truman State University alumni {{Missouri-politician-stub