AFFORDABILITY • Public Safety • Educational Proficiency

Barbara has a strong record as an advocate for families and passionate Conservative who never relents in working for Wisconsin.

barbara's EMPHASIS HAS BEEN:

• Victim’s Rights & Community Safety

• Maintaining Women’s Sports for Biological Women

• Workforce Strength

• Mental Health Issues

• Substance Abuse Prevention & Recovery

• Controlling Spending & Taxes

• Educational Choice for All

• Medical Privacy & Freedom

• Preserving & Protecting Life

VICTIM’S RIGHTS & COMMUNITY SAFETY

Representative Dittrich was the author of “Kayleigh’s Law,” legislation offering victims the chance to be granted a lifetime restraining order against their assailants. On April 15, 2022, Kayleigh’s Law was signed by Governor Evers after overwhelming bipartisan support and became 2021Wisconsin Act 256.

Barbara continues to work with school resource officers, local and county law enforcement, and county social services to address the concerns threatening the safety of our communities. Most recently, she authored 2025 Wisconsin Act 218, which gives our Wisconsin Department of Justice subpoena power where sextortion internet crimes against children are suspected.

Maintaining Women’s Sports for Biological Women

In March of 2021, Representative Dittrich introduced the “Protecting Women in Sports Act,” which would preserve women’s sports on both the high school and collegiate level for biological women. Hearing the concerns of parents who had daughters competing in sports and Wisconsin women who were independently involved in state sports, Barbara penned this legislation months before controversies involved with UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas became front-page news. The legislation was passed in the Assembly but derailed in the Senate in the 2021-22 legislative session. With great fanfare, Gov. Evers vetoed the legislation in both the 2023-24 and 2025-26 legislative sessions. The Representative intends to continue fighting for the safety and achievements of Wisconsin’s female athletes.

WORKFORCE STRENGTH

Representative Dittrich has proudly served as the Vice-Chair of the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development for two consecutive legislative sessions. She was the Assembly author of 2019 Wisconsin Act 171, expanding Wisconsin’s youth apprenticeships. Barbara was a fierce champion for workers during the COVID-19 crisis and the backlog of unemployment claims. The Representative continues to seek innovative ways to address the serious ongoing workforce shortage she is hearing about in every sector of the economy. Pathways to employment and removal of licensing obstacles continue to be a battle she is fighting.

Mental Health

Representative Dittrich has been a strong supporter of mental health legislation in the State Assembly. During the 2025-26 legislative session, she authored 2025 Wisconsin Act 123, allowing psychiatric advanced practice registered nurses to assess involuntarily committed individuals who are refusing medication, which will help patients get more prompt care and remove court backlogs. She also authored 2025 Wisconsin Act 184, which allows for video monitoring or recording in residential care centers for children and youth, group homes, and shelter care facilities. This will increase safety for both staff and kids in these facilities. Representative Dittrich has also been working for the past two legislative sessions to get a school-centered mental health pilot program initiated, to test a model that would give comprehensive, year-round mental health care to children independent of the school staff.

SUBStance Abuse

Throughout every hearing of the Speaker’s Task Force on Adoption in the summer of 2019 that Representative Dittrich chaired, substance abuse was mentioned as a contributing factor to broken families. All of us know someone who has been devastated by this national and state epidemic. Not only do these drugs threaten our community by their direct use, they also threaten public safety by the criminal subculture they fuel. Major progress was made in the 2023-24 legislative session as Barbara proudly authored 2023 Wisconsin Act 72, which initiated a state grant to fund recovery high schools. In the 2025 biennial budget, she saw her budget motion honored to expand grant funding for recovery high schools across the state, providing great hope for our youth who have already fallen prey to using illicit substances. During the 2025-26 legislative session, Representative Dittrich authored several proposals related to substance use and prevention, including 2025 Wisconsin Act 5 which renews the successful state prescription drug monitoring program through 2030, and 2025 Wisconsin Act 73 which adds the Physician Assistant Board President to the state controlled substances board. Most notably, she also authored 2025 Wisconsin Act 99, which allows for law enforcement to do a preliminary testing of oral fluids for six different categories of illicit substances other than alcohol when impairment is suspected. This testing will be permitted on roadways, waterways, and trails throughout our state, offering greater protection throughout our state. Much more work lies ahead as pressure builds for fully legalizing marijuana in Wisconsin.

Controlling Spending & Taxes

Despite the Governor’s repeated efforts to spend more and increase taxes, Representative Dittrich has stood against out-of-control spending. You do better with more of your hard-earned money in your own pocket. With that in mind, Barbara voted for the “compromise bill” that came as a special session to the 2025-26 legislative session because it would have returned 80% of the state’s budget surplus to taxpayers and stabilized school districts with additional special education funding. While returning 100% of the surplus to taxpayers would have been ideal, the months worth of work put into the compromise legislation would have yielded a good deal and solid financial relief for taxpayers during a challenging financial environment in our nation.

Going forward, Representative Dittrich believes that exploring the possibility of eliminating Wisconsin’s state income tax is worth serious consideration. This has proven to be an incredible boon to states that have done so like Florida and Tennessee, and this could additionally help with workforce recruitment and retention. With Wisconsin recently named in the top ten for property tax rates, affordability of living in this state with our overall tax burden must be addressed if the voters send a Republican to the governor’s office!

Educational EXCELLENCe for all

The COVID-19 virus exposed flaws in education like never before. Barbara has long been an advocate of educational choice and has been given the inaugural 2021 Common Sense Award for being Wisconsin’s first legislator to sign the Education Freedom Pledge. Things have only worsened since that time. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction has been accused of trying to hide the fact that at least half of our state’s students are not at grade level for reading and math because of a change in the way scores were assessed. The racial achievement gap has widened in the state under “The Education Governor” as well. Meanwhile, school districts are demanding more money as enrollment continues to decline in most of those districts. This combination of challenges will make addressing public education even more imperative in the 2027-28 legislative session. Rep. Dittrich has introduced legislation to promote educational transparency, supported legislation to keep kids physically active during the school day, and co-sponsored legislation regarding recurring operating referenda for school districts. Knowing that there is no correlation between increased spending on education and outcomes, Barbara continues to work hard as a member of the Assembly Committee on Education to seek solutions for students and taxpayers alike.

Medical FREEDOM & AFFORDABILITY

Representative Dittrich has vast experience with personal medical advocacy. This gives her a pragmatic approach toward health care issues. In an effort to increase efficiency and affordability, she introduced prior authorization legislation in the 2025-26 session that will be reintroduced in the 2027-28 legislative session. In this same session, she was a co-author of legislation that would give parents full access to their minor children’s health records that was vetoed by the governor. Most notably, Barbara was granted her budget motion in the 2025-26 biennial budget to fund special needs dentistry under Wisconsin’s Medicaid Program. She continues to serve on the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care, carefully weighing the concerns and proposed solutions on a wide variety of health care issues.

Preserving Life

Representative Dittrich was once the author of three strong pro-life bills that passed through the Assembly and Senate in past sessions but sadly, vetoed by the Governor. One bill decertified Planned Parenthood as a health care provider under the state’s medical assistance program. Another prohibited abortion based upon gender or prenatal diagnosis. The final piece of legislation would establish a network of informational resources to parents receiving a prenatal diagnosis for their child. Barbara also continued to stand against proposed assisted suicide legislation. While she holds life dearly, she knows that Wisconsin stands on a cliff of having abortion legalized up through birth for any reason, which is not where most voters are. That is why she was a co-sponsor of 2023 AB 975, which would limit abortion to that first trimester. She believes her family's story of serious chronic diagnosis is a testament to the hopeful promise that every life matters.