La Tonya Johnson

LaTonya Johnson (born June 22, 1972) is an American activist and Democratic politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 6th Senate district since 2017. Before her election to the Senate, she served two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, and was president of AFSCME Local 502.

Background
Johnson was born June 22, 1972 in La Grange, Tennessee. She earned a B.S. degree in criminal justice from Tennessee State University, and has lived in Milwaukee for over thirty years. She owned and operated Anointed Child Care Service, an in-home daycare service, and served as president of Local 502 of AFSCME, the union which represents in-home daycare providers in Milwaukee County. She has one daughter, Sydney.

Assembly
When Barbara Toles resigned from her Assembly District 17 seat, Johnson was one of four candidates who vied for the Democratic nomination in this recently redistricted inner city district. She achieved an easy plurality, with 43% of the vote, in a field which included a former Milwaukee Area Technical College Board member with UAW ties, and an aide to State Representative Elizabeth Coggs. In the general election, she drew 20,262 votes, to 3564 for her sole opponent, banker Anthony Edwards.

Senate
In November 2016, Johnson was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. She had easily defeated two opponents (local government lobbyist Thomas Harris and Milwaukee School Board member Michael Bonds) in the August Democratic primary, and was unopposed in the general election. In 2020, she defeated primary challenger Michelle Bryant, the chief of staff for State Senator Lena Taylor. In the general election, she defeated Alciro Deacon in a landslide.

Murder of Lily Peters
In April 2022, 10-year-old Lily Peters from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, went missing, triggering a search that ended in tragedy when her body was found. Despite the urgency of the situation, Lily's case did not meet the strict criteria for an Amber Alert, leaving her family and community feeling helpless and prompting a public outcry for change. Advocacy efforts, including a petition that received over 196,000 signatures, called for an expansion of the alert criteria to better protect children. The campaign, targeted at Senator Jesse James, did not result in legislation during the 2021-22 Legislative Session.

Disappearance of Prince McCree
In October 2023, the case of 5-year-old Prince McCree from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, brought national attention to the limitations of the existing Amber Alert system. Prince went missing while at home, and despite efforts from his family and the Milwaukee Police Department to issue an Amber Alert, the request was denied due to the lack of information on a suspect. Tragically, Prince was found dead the following day, leading to a renewal in advocacy for a more inclusive alert system for missing children.

In response to this tragedy, State Senator LaTonya Johnson collaborated with State Senator Jesse James to introduce the Protection and Recovery Involving Non-located Children Endangered (PRINCE) Act. Named in honor of Prince McCree, the PRINCE Act modifies the missing adult at risk criteria, currently used for the Silver Alert system, to include children under 10, or children under 18 who have a physical or mental disability that would prevent them from returning home safely. This legislation, which passed both the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly in February 2024, aims to ensure that every missing child receives immediate and widespread attention.

After the PRINCE Act passed the Assembly unanimously, Senator Johnson released a statement saying "The passage of this bill fulfills my promise to the families of Prince McCree and Lily Peters, and to the families of missing children around the state. I am deeply moved and grateful for the bipartisan support that the PRINCE Act received, and I look forward to seeing Governor Evers sign this bill into law.”

Controversy
During a discussion in the state senate on the state budget, Johnson criticized Republican policies that she believed contribute to crime in Milwaukee, including inaction on gun control. She provided an anecdote about a little girl's funeral she attended who was killed by a stray bullet, and that she has lost count of how many children's funerals she has attended because of gun violence. Johnson accused Republicans of only taking action now because the crime was affecting their suburban communities.

She ended her comments by saying "What about [the moms of children in the city], who had to say goodbye to their kids forever, because of their zip code? Fuck the suburbs, because they don't know a goddamn thing about life in the city." This comment received national attention, and Steve Schuster said Johnson should step down from her position. Others came to her defense, including Wisconsin journalist Dan Shafer, who wrote "I grew up in the suburbs and live in the city and it’s incredible how misconstrued and flat-out wrong suburban perceptions of Milwaukee can be." Johnson later apologized for her comments, saying "Although I stand by the context of my speech, I could have used a different choice of words on the Senate floor. I apologize for using those specific words."