The City of Janesville will have a new representative in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2021.
44th District Representative Deb Kolste announced Thursday she will not be seeking re-election when her term expires next year.
“To say that serving as your state representative for the last eight years has been an honor and a privilege would be a huge understatement,” Kolste said in a statement. “It is now time for me to take time to help my family and community on a more personal level.”
The Democrat was first voted to the position in 2012 and most recently won re-election in November of 2018. She previously worked as a medical technologist before running for office.
Kolste was appointed to serve on the Speaker’s Task Force for Suicide Prevention and the Governor’s Task Force on Caregiving under the new administration.
“The relationships with my family, friends and community have informed my beliefs and I hope that is what has been represented in the work that I have done in the Capitol,” Kolste said. “It is a more fervent hope that the politics, especially the politics of power that sometimes are ever present in legislative bodies, have had a much more marginal effect on what I believed we should accomplish as a body.”
She was a guest on WCLO’s The Stan Milam Show on Wednesday to discuss her pharmacy benefit manager bill recently approved by the assembly.
