Wisconsin's Longest-Serving Legislator Says He Will Retire

The longest-serving legislator in the United States is finally going to call it quits.
By Associated Press, Wire Service Content?March 26, 2020, at 6:29 p.m.

BY TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin state Sen. Fred Risser, the longest-serving legislator in the nation's history, said Thursday that he plans to retire.

Risser, 92, announced that he won't seek re-election this fall. The Democrat has represented Madison in the Wisconsin Legislature for 64 years. He's the last World War II veteran remaining in any of the state legislatures and Congress, according to his office.

Born in 1927, Risser was first elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1956 and moved to the Senate in 1962. He served as Senate president 15 times over 25 years and worked with 13 different governors.

Risser has said one of his greatest legislative accomplishments was crafting a bill in 2009 that banned smoking in all workplaces. Two years later he was one of 14 minority Democrats in the Senate who fled the state in a futile attempt to prevent a vote on then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker's contentious plan to strip public workers of their union rights.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2020-03-26/longest-serving-legislator-wont-seek-re-election