Profile · Oak Creek, Wisconsin
John Jagler
Wisconsin state senator; raised in Oak Creek from age three; Oak Creek High School class of 1987
$60,924
John Jagler spent sixteen years co-hosting Wisconsin's Morning News on WTMJ before a cold call landed him in Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald's office and, soon after, in elective office. He has served in the Wisconsin Legislature since 2013 and in the Senate since 2021, representing Dodge and Jefferson County country around Watertown. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 4, 1969, he was three when the family moved to Oak Creek. He graduated from Oak Creek High School in 1987, left UW–Parkside for broadcast school in Madison, and woke at 1 a.m. for years to co-host with Gene Mueller. When the radio format shifted, he offered himself to Fitzgerald's office and was hired on the same phone call, just in time for the Act 10 winter of 2011, when staffers were yelled at, threatened, and followed to cars. Jagler learned protesters by name. Redistricting opened a seat in Watertown country. He knocked on about 10,000 doors, survived a five-way primary, and reached the Assembly in 2013, joking that he was a "redshirt freshman." He moved to the Senate in 2021. He lives in Watertown with his wife Heidi and their three children. The political career is not an Oak Creek aldermanic seat; the childhood and the Knights yearbook are.