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Terry Schoonover
Terry Schoonover (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Wisconsin State Assembly to represent District 29. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Schoonover completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Terry Schoonover was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin. He earned an associate degree from Phoenix College in 1979, a bachelor's degree from Saint Thomas University in 1988, and a graduate degree from Saint Thomas University in 1991. His career experience includes working as a coordinator.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Wisconsin State Assembly elections, 2024
General election
General election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 29
Incumbent Treig Pronschinske defeated Terry Schoonover in the general election for Wisconsin State Assembly District 29 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Treig Pronschinske (R) | 64.9 | 21,619 |
 | Terry Schoonover (D)  | 35.0 | 11,675 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 20 | ||
| Total votes: 33,314 | |||
| = 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 29
Terry Schoonover advanced from the Democratic primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 29 on August 13, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Terry Schoonover | 99.8 | 4,157 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 8 | ||
| Total votes: 4,165 | |||
| = 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 29
Incumbent Treig Pronschinske advanced from the Republican primary for Wisconsin State Assembly District 29 on August 13, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Treig Pronschinske | 99.7 | 4,764 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 12 | ||
| Total votes: 4,776 | |||
| = 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
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Schoonover in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Terry Schoonover completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Schoonover's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I was born in Marshfield, WI, and grew up in nearby Loyal, WI. I graduated from Loyal High School. I went on to Phoenix College (Phoenix, AZ) where I graduated with an associate degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. As a non-traditional student, I attended the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, and a Master’s in International Management degree. I was employed at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) for 20 years, where I worked closely with city and county law enforcement, fire departments, EMS and public health. I retired in 2017.
In 2017, I was deployed on an American Red Cross Jump Team for three weeks to Florida in response to Hurricane Irma, where I helped manage several shelters for displaced residents.
In retirement, I remain active, having worked locally and in Madison to eliminate gerrymandered electoral maps in Wisconsin. I was part of the effort to secure a referendum on the Buffalo County April 2021 ballot on fair maps which passed with 68% of voters, Republicans and Democrats, voting for fair maps. Earlier this year, I provided voter registration education with the League of Women Voters - Greater Chippewa Valley. When I am not a candidate, I am a poll worker for the town of Belvidere at the VFW in Cochrane, WI during elections.- As an Emergency Management Coordinator. I worked collaboratively with a collection of agencies as diverse as law enforcement, fire departments, EMS, Public Health, elected officials, and healthcare professionals. We didn’t always agree, but we got things done because we respected each other. We welcomed differences of opinion in arriving at good decisions, and the quality of the results bore that philosophy out. Many politicians talk a good game about "working across the aisle," but their legislative record doesn't back it up.
- Three years ago I was heavily involved with the Fair Maps initiative in Wisconsin. In February of this year Governor Evers signed new maps into law. By ending the highly gerrymandered maps, voters finally have an opportunity to bring real change to the legislature in Madison by having competitive districts. In March, I was approached by three respected friends I have worked with in the past on political issues. They felt that I would make a good candidate to take on the incumbent. I decided that I could either throw my hands up in frustration at our current political climate or throw my hat in the ring. Fair maps and maintaining the integrity of our election process is a priority.
- In 3.5 months, I have logged over 4,150 miles meeting constituents across the entire Assembly District 29. There are many concerns, but standing out are clean drinking water (Pepin & Pierce Counties), inadequate funding of public schools, access to healthcare services, and unfunded mandates. Unfunded mandates are especially hard on rural communities. Volunteer fire departments and EMS groups are struggling to recruit people. Insufficient funding makes it extremely difficult to maintain state required certifications. Many folks are frustrated that the state is sitting on a $3.25 billion surplus while significant programs are not being fully funded.
As a poll worker and Chief Inspector in my polling municipality, the Town of Belvidere, I have met some of the most civic-minded, patriotic people in our region who are dedicated to ensuring every vote is counted.
A favorite quote my daughter passed along to me after I declared my candidacy, by Brene’ Brown, sums it up best ... “Integrity - Choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”
Wisconsin is one of twelve states nationally (and one of only two in the Midwest) that has not accepted Medicaid expansion, which would extend coverage to an estimated 89,700 people in our state. It makes no fiscal sense for elected Wisconsin Republicans to refuse expansion of Medicaid. It has cost Wisconsin taxpayers $1.6 billion over ten years. We are subsidizing other states’ Medicaid expansion, but not enjoying those same benefits here in Wisconsin.
Affordable Housing
The first thing we need to do is acknowledge that the lack of affordable housing is a big problem in our communities. In the 29th Assembly District, as well as across the state and nation, we have workers living out of their cars due to the lack of housing.
Wisconsin needs to get creative and explore options that will incentivize production of affordable housing. Tax credits can be designed to spur developers to build smaller-footprint homes. Funding packages should allocate money toward building homeless shelters and converting office buildings into apartments. We should consider increasing the property tax credit for rental housing and rental assistance to prevent evictions and expand protections for renters. Over-restrictive zoning laws need to be updated.
The affordable housing crisis requires multifaceted solutions.
Redistricting Process
The “Iowa Model” of drawing up maps is something we should embrace to end the extreme gerrymandering of our legislative districts. Having a non-partisan civil service entity create the maps keeps the fox out of the hen house.
I believe our elected officials have a responsibility to explain their actions and decisions to the people who elected them.
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.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 15, 2024
