User:Tswiftlvr23/Danielle Conrad

Danielle Conrad
Danielle Nantkes Conrad (born on August 5, 1977) is a politician from the U.S. state of Nebraska. From 2007 to 2015, she served in the Nebraska State Legislature, representing District 46 on the city of Lincoln's north side. Since her departure from the legislature, Conrad has served as the executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, and has testified at a multitude of hearings on topics ranging from free speech to abortion rights (cite).

Early life and education
Conrad was born and raised in Seward County, Nebraska. Her father served as a Deputy Sheriff in Seward County for over 25 years, and her mother has been a teacher at Lincoln Public Schools for over 15 years (cite). She earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2000, and in 2003, she earned her J.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Law (cite).

Career
After becoming a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association, Conrad took a job with the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, a non-profit, non-partisan law project providing legal counsel to the poor, minorities, and immigrants in the state of Nebraska (cite). She also has worked as a consultant for Nebraskans United (cite).

Nebraska Legislature (2007-2015)
A registered Democrat, Conrad ran for the 46th seat of the Nebraska Legislature which is within the North Side of Lincoln, in 2006. She won 55% of the vote and defeated Republican Carol Brown for the non-partisan seat. Her standing committee assignments included Appropriations and Nebraska Retirement Systems (cite). She also served on the Performance Audit Committee, Retirement Systems Committee, Redistricting Committee, and chaired the Legislature's Innovation and Entrepreneurial Task Force (cite).

During Conrad's time in office, she was one of only ten women in the 49-member Nebraska Legislature. Conrad became a fan of politics as a teenager following the historic race for Governor pitting two women, Republican Kay Orr against Democrat Helen Boosalis.

Due to term limits, she did not seek re-election to the Legislature in 2014, and was succeeded by Adam Morfeld.

Executive Director of the ACLU of Nebraska
Conrad headed the ACLU of Nebraska since 2014, during her time the number of staff grew from just four people to a team of ten full time staff with two contact lawyers. Legal victories were won within LGBTQ equality, open government, and reproductive rights. She also supported expanding Medicaid eligibility, banning predatory payday lending, eliminating the last vestiges of slavery from Nebraska's state constitution, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing election election participation through a mass mailing of vote-by-mail applications (cite).

Conrad left her role at the ACLU to run for Lincoln, Nebraska's District 46, which is her former seat.

Abortion
Three bills were introduced during the 107th Legislature, Second Session, and one of the bills, LB 933, would make it illegal at any point except to save the life of the mother. Conrad testified on behalf of the ACLU for this bill, and was a strong opponent to it (cite). During her time at the legislature, she has voted against abortion screening requirements and prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks (cite).

Business and Consumers
Conrad has been a longstanding advocate for raising the minimum wage in Nebraska, and has voted to increase it during her time in the legislature. In 2008, she sponsored LB1082 which was introduced to expand workers' compensation benefits (cite)

Criminal Justice
Conrad voted to eliminate the death penalty in Nebraska in 2007. She was also a co-sponsor of LB1105 in 2010 that was intended to perform a cost study on the death penalty

Equality
Conrad has voted for the passage of bills concerning prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, she was also the sponsor one year,

Initiative Rights
Conrad voted to override former Governor Dan Heineman's veto of LB 39, which was to impose limits on the initiative process in Nebraska. LB 39 was sponsored by DiAnna Schimek of the Unicameral's District 27.

Personal Life
Conrad married her best friend from law school, Tom Conrad, and they now have two young children. She has been involved with the Lincoln Bar Association, Lincoln YWCA, Nebraska LAPTOP Program, Nebraska State Bar Association, and the Volunteers Lawyers Project. She was also the vice chair of the Community Development Task Force.