“Why Not Me?” Mom of 4 Serves in Local Government

Jennifer Grant works in the Human Resources Department at a hospital four days a week. She has four kids under the age of nine. With that kind of schedule, it’s hard enough to find time for yourself, let alone to represent your community on the county board of supervisors.

That point was certainly lost on Grant, a native of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, who threw her hat in the ring and ran for county board of supervisors in 2012.

“Growing up I wasn’t all that interested in politics. I wasn’t a Young Republican or anything like that in college,” Grant says. “It was 9/11 that was the beginning of the turning point. I began following the news a lot more closely, and then from news websites to blogs. That’s when I began to realize I was more of a conservative republican.”

Grant made her first step into the political world when she attended a Tea Party rally in 2011. It was shortly after the event she realized that, because of redistricting, she was living in a district without an incumbent county supervisor. “I looked at it, and thought ‘Why not me?’” Grant says. “There’s been a decline in this country, and there aren’t enough people willing to step forward and run.” When it looked like no other principled conservatives were standing up, Grant filed papers, gathered the necessary signatures, and got her name on the ballot. A week before the deadline, another candidate filed, and the race was on.

For Grant, a large part of preparing for the election was attending an American Majority training. “The programs and the topics were relevant and good,” Grant says. “It was also great to network at the event with 3-4 other people who were going to be running in similar races. I made lasting connections and we frequently bounced ideas off each other.”

Grant took what she learned from American Majority and ran an aggressive ground campaign. “The district is only 13000 people, and it’s a very small geographic area,” Grant says. “I reached out to the local Republican party and was able to get a list of all the known Republicans in my district. I sat down and mapped out how to knock on each and every one of their doors.” County Commissioner races in Wisconsin are non-partisan, so Grant had to do extra work to let her target demographic—conservatives—know she was one of them.

Grant’s ground campaign paid off, and in April of 2012 she won her election with 67 percent of the vote. “I was able to target those people who I knew were going to vote, and made sure they knew who I was,” Grant says. Grant now serves on the Personnel and Public Works committees on the county board. She works hard to make sure the county sticks to conservative principles. “Republicans don’t always act like republicans when they get into office,” Grant says. “It’s hard sometimes, but it’s very rewarding. You feel so good for standing up for what you believe in. Standing up for my convictions and doing the right thing is what I’m out to do at every county supervisors’ meeting.”