Leah Vukmir

Vukmir received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Marquette University in 1980, and a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 where she specialized in child development and primary care treatment of children. She is a registered nurse and nationally certified pediatric nurse practitioner with over 25 years of nursing and teaching experience at St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Vukmir was first elected in November 2002, succeeding Scott Walker (R), who was elected in a special election as Milwaukee County Executive. She was the ranking member of the Assembly’s Committee on Health and Health Care Reform. She was also a member of the committees on Public Health, Education Reform, Education and Criminal Justice.

Vukmir announced on June 25, 2009 that she was challenging incumbent Democratic State Senator Jim Sullivan for the 5th district seat in 2010. The race attracted large amounts of out-of-state campaign contributions, and only 14% of Vukmir's donors were residents of Wauwautosa. On November 2, 2010, Vukmir defeated Sullivan for reelection. She was succeeded in her Assembly seat by fellow Republican Dale Kooyenga.

Vukmir opposes medical marijuana and has said that there is no medical reason to use it. At a public hearing in 2009, she was booed after accusing fellow legislators Jon Erpenbach and Mark Pocan of using dying cancer patients to further a secret agenda of legalization.

As of 2015, Vukmir was on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative group that has been described by news outlets as giving corporate interests outsized influence in the state legislative process. In June 2013, the Center for Media and Democracy sued Vukmir, contending she had violated Wisconsin's open records law by not turning over records related to her involvement with ALEC. Vukmir responded by claiming she could not be sued while in office. The suit was settled in 2014, with the state of Wisconsin agreeing to pay $15,000 and Vukmir turning over e-mails from her personal Yahoo! account that she said she had withheld due to "technical issues".

On September 7, 2017, Vukmir announced she would run for the U.S. Senate, in an attempt to unseat Democrat Tammy Baldwin.