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Jason Vangalis
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Jason Vangalis (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Wisconsin State Assembly to represent District 48. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 11, 2020.
Vangalis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jason Vangalis was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2012 and a master’s degree from Northwestern University in 2017. Vangalis’s career experience includes working as an economic developer.
Vangalis served on the board and as the chair of the New Harvest Foundation, which describes itself as “the only foundation in Dane County, Wisconsin that channels charitable contributions exclusively to organizations working to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) rights, services, culture, and community development.”[1][2]
Elections
2020
See also: Wisconsin State Assembly elections, 2020
General election
General election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48
Samba Baldeh defeated Samuel Anderson in the general election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Samba Baldeh (D) | 79.6 | 30,074 |
| Samuel Anderson (R) | 20.3 | 7,650 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 45 | ||
| Total votes: 37,769 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48
Samba Baldeh defeated Lindsay Lemmer, Walt Stewart, and Jason Vangalis in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48 on August 11, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Samba Baldeh | 49.4 | 7,305 |
| Lindsay Lemmer | 35.3 | 5,215 | ||
 | Walt Stewart | 10.7 | 1,578 | |
 | Jason Vangalis | 4.5 | 665 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 17 | ||
| Total votes: 14,780 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48
Samuel Anderson advanced from the Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 48 on August 11, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Samuel Anderson | 99.8 | 1,184 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 2 | ||
| Total votes: 1,186 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jason Vangalis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Vangalis' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am an experienced economic developer with a proven track record in helping rebuild communities after economic downturn, strengthening our workforce, and expanding economic opportunity. I also have worked to build a multi-state response plan to Coronavirus, working with federal partners like FEMA. I've worked to secure hazard pay for team members, ensured essential supply chains remained active during the pandemic, and ensure the health and safety of team members across 12 states. My work in economic and community development help create 3,000 new jobs and bring nearly $10 billion in new investment to communities here in Wisconsin and around the country. I have worked across the country building strategies for growth, developing tools to create more housing, and working in communities to create alignment even among opposing viewpoints. My personal experience growing up on welfare and seeing firsthand the impact addiction and our criminal justice system has on families provides a unique perspective on how we can reform our public safety infrastructure to do better.
- Create and expand greater economic opportunity for all of Wisconsin.
- Grow and develop Wisconsin's students and workforce for a changing economy.
- Grow and develop Wisconsin's students and workforce for a changing economy.
Expanding Economic Opportunity: The East and Northside of Madison's economy has limited growth opportunities with its current economic make-up. Most of the jobs are retail, food service, and accommodations focused, which do not offer significant growth opportunities for folks to create and build wealth. With nearly a $16 billion economy, the 48th district has an incredible opportunity to capture more of the supply chain within this economy and expand economic opportunity. My focus will be to build a broader and diverse economy that provides thriving wages.
Workforce and Education: We cannot successfully expand our economic base within the 48th district without also focusing on strengthening our workforce development and building more opportunities for our students. Wisconsin's workforce is aging and technology is rapidly changing what our economy will look like. This is why ensuring we work with workforce development, education, and private industry partners to develop wrap around services that train and develop our existing and next generation of workers will be essential to Wisconsin's growth.
My core philosophy is work hard and do good work. An elected officials first responsibility is to help improve the lives of their constituents whether this is through broad policy or constituent relations does not matter. Next, elected officials have a responsibility to elevate voices that are otherwise not heard. This means share their platform with folks and give others the microphone. I also believe this means working to elect individuals that have traditionally not been given an opportunity to lead in this fashion. This position also needs to hold others in power accountable. Our systems are succeed and fail on trust and accountability. Finally, the individual elected to this office must be effective even if they are in the minority. This means making meaningful change and not meaningless statements. I want my elected officials to do something not be something.
My first job was working in my high school office as a student assistant. Over the course of three years I was able to work with some amazing educators, administrators, and staff. Their commitment to education and students was without a doubt life changing. One of my mentors was our high school administrative assistant. She provided clarity and guidance when I needed it. Having the opportunity to work closely with these folks provided a deeper appreciation for our educators and all those who support their work. In my final year of high school, I chose to run for the local school board because I believed so deeply that our community could do more to elevate our educators. While my bid for school board was not successful, it did provide an opportunity to engage with our community and share the experience that I was able to have for three years with the staff and faculty.
September by Earth, Wind &Fire
I grew up in a single parent household, relying on welfare to make ends meet. My three older siblings have struggled with addiction and continue to struggle. I have watched as they have gone in and out of the criminal justice system. My father has also struggled with addiction. One of the most challenging things I have done was visit my father in jail. His name and picture was plastered across the front page of the local paper. I watched as people wrote awful things about him. In response, I crafted an open letter about his humanity. I read it to my father through the bullet proof glass as he wore a red jumpsuit. More than most, I have watched my family be destroyed by our criminal justice system, by addiction, and by poverty. I am a first generation college graduate and worked my through college. I have taken these life struggles and turned them into experience. In turn, this experience has shaped my perspective and given me voice to some of the greatest challenges facing our communities,
I think it's important for a state legislator to have relevant experience based on what they aim to achieve. Building public policy is about an understanding of fundamentals that one is trying to impact. For example, having worked in community and economic development for a decade I have built an understanding of how to impact an economy's diversity to create new jobs. I have also helped craft public policy to achieve this aim. While a city council may vote on economic development projects from time to time, they have little to know direct exposure to building the policies that will make changes. It's important for our elected officials to have experience beyond Robert's Rules of Order.
Within the next half decade, the biggest challenge will be overcoming the impacts of Coronavirus, starting with a nearly $2 billion shortfall. Policy decisions being made in response this will have far reaching impacts. Ensuring that our funding is prioritized to focus on the health and safety of everyone while also making sure our funding helps to focus restoring our economy. Once we have an understanding of what will have the biggest impact, we can set out o identify how these areas will be funded. This means looking at areas we can reduce funding and opportunities to create revenue. One approach can be to temporarily collect revenues from certain tax incentive programs that are traditionally by right. Then provide these payments back to residents and businesses over a period of time. This approach will help to ensure the burden is shared by all while at the same time not raising taxes.
Being an effective legislator is about building coalitions with people even if they have different viewpoints. Critical to the success of this is establishing relationships with other legislators, but also their constituents. Over the last decade I have worked in communities that were misaligned on how best to achieve growth or what that growth should look like. Often times when policy is being made the stakeholders that are most impacted are left out of the conversations early on. When I brought businesses, community members, organizations, and elected officials to the table, I was most effective at building a common vision for growth. The same is true within our state legislator. Bringing groups that will be impacted by policy decisions into the conversation helps establish trust, but also provides clarity from politics. As a legislator, I will work to build relationships not only with other legislators, but trade groups, unions, community organizations, and other stakeholders that will be impacted by the outcomes in the State Assembly.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ New Harvest Foundation, “Home,” accessed July 24, 2020
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 21, 2020
Current members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Leadership
Minority Leader:Greta Neubauer
Representatives
District 1
Joel Kitchens (R)
District 2
Shae Sortwell (R)
District 3
Ron Tusler (R)
District 4
David Steffen (R)
District 5
Joy Goeben (R)
District 6
Elijah Behnke (R)
District 7
Karen Kirsch (D)
District 8
District 9
Priscilla Prado (D)
District 10
Darrin Madison (D)
District 11
Sequanna Taylor (D)
District 12
Russell Goodwin (D)
District 13
Robyn Vining (D)
District 14
Angelito Tenorio (D)
District 15
Adam Neylon (R)
District 16
Kalan Haywood (D)
District 17
Supreme Omokunde (D)
District 18
Margaret Arney (D)
District 19
Ryan Clancy (D)
District 20
District 21
Jessie Rodriguez (R)
District 22
Paul Melotik (R)
District 23
Deb Andraca (D)
District 24
Daniel Knodl (R)
District 25
Paul Tittl (R)
District 26
Joe Sheehan (D)
District 27
Lindee Brill (R)
District 28
Rob Kreibich (R)
District 29
District 30
District 31
Tyler August (R)
District 32
Amanda Nedweski (R)
District 33
Robin Vos (R)
District 34
Rob Swearingen (R)
District 35
Calvin Callahan (R)
District 36
Jeffrey Mursau (R)
District 37
Mark Born (R)
District 38
District 39
Alex Dallman (R)
District 40
Karen DeSanto (D)
District 41
Tony Kurtz (R)
District 42
District 43
Brienne Brown (D)
District 44
Ann Roe (D)
District 45
Clinton Anderson (D)
District 46
Joan Fitzgerald (D)
District 47
Randy Udell (D)
District 48
Andrew Hysell (D)
District 49
Travis Tranel (R)
District 50
Jenna Jacobson (D)
District 51
Todd Novak (R)
District 52
Lee Snodgrass (D)
District 53
Dean Kaufert (R)
District 54
Lori Palmeri (D)
District 55
Nate Gustafson (R)
District 56
Dave Murphy (R)
District 57
Kevin Petersen (R)
District 58
Rick Gundrum (R)
District 59
Robert Brooks (R)
District 60
Jerry O'Connor (R)
District 61
Robert Donovan (R)
District 62
Angelina Cruz (D)
District 63
Robert Wittke (R)
District 64
Tip McGuire (D)
District 65
Ben DeSmidt (D)
District 66
Greta Neubauer (D)
District 67
David Armstrong (R)
District 68
Rob Summerfield (R)
District 69
Karen Hurd (R)
District 70
Nancy VanderMeer (R)
District 71
Vinnie Miresse (D)
District 72
Scott Krug (R)
District 73
Angela Stroud (D)
District 74
Chanz Green (R)
District 75
Duke Tucker (R)
District 76
Francesca Hong (D)
District 77
Renuka Mayadev (D)
District 78
Shelia Stubbs (D)
District 79
Lisa Subeck (D)
District 80
Mike Bare (D)
District 81
Alex Joers (D)
District 82
Scott Allen (R)
District 83
Dave Maxey (R)
District 84
Chuck Wichgers (R)
District 85
Patrick Snyder (R)
District 86
John Spiros (R)
District 87
Brent Jacobson (R)
District 88
District 89
Ryan Spaude (D)
District 90
District 91
Jodi Emerson (D)
District 92
Clint Moses (R)
District 93
Christian Phelps (D)
District 94
Steve Doyle (D)
District 95
Jill Billings (D)
District 96
Tara Johnson (D)
District 97
Cindi Duchow (R)
District 98
Jim Piwowarczyk (R)
District 99
Barbara Dittrich (R)
Republican Party (54)
Democratic Party (45)
