Pedro Colón
Pedro A. Colón is an American lawyer, jurist, and Democratic politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in the Milwaukee-based 2nd district since November 2023. He previously served 13 years as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Milwaukee County, and prior to his judicial service, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly for six terms, representing the 8th Assembly district from 1999 to 2010. He was the first [Hispanic and Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino Americans|Latino] elected to the Wisconsin Legislature, and now the first Latino to judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Background
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, April 7, 1968, Colón grew up on the South Side of Milwaukee and graduated from Milwaukee's Thomas More High School. He received his B.A. in political science from Marquette University in 1991, and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1994.Political history
He was first elected to the State Assembly in 1998, making him the first Latino to be elected a member of either house of the Wisconsin Legislature; he was reelected in the next five elections. He served as vice-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance and of the Judiciary and Ethics Committee.He briefly ran for Mayor of Milwaukee in 2003, but withdrew, endorsing and becoming co-chair of the campaign for eventual 2004 election winner Tom Barrett. Colón also ran unsuccessfully for Milwaukee city attorney in 2008 against incumbent Grant Langley.
On May 26, 2010, Colón announced that he was not running for re-election in the 2010 general election, and resigned from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Commission, which he once chaired. The next day, he confirmed that he was applying for a job as the deputy director of legal services at the District, and had resigned to avoid a potential conflict of interest.