Alberta Darling


Alberta Darling is an American politician who is currently a Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 8th District since 1993. She currently serves as the Senate Co-Chair of the Joint Finance Committee, the state's budget-writing committee. Darling's constituency includes many of the municipalities directly north and northwest of Milwaukee and part of the City of Milwaukee. Before her election to the Senate, she served in the Wisconsin Assembly, representing the 10th district from 1990 to 1993.

Personal life and education

Darling was born in Hammond, Indiana and raised in Peoria, Illinois where she graduated from Richwoods High School. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1966. After graduating from UW-Madison, she moved to Milwaukee and did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1972 to 1974. Darling was a high school English teacher in Milwaukee and later a marketing and business development director in the private sector before being elected to public office.
Darling met her husband, Dr. William "Bill" Darling, during their time at the University of Wisconsin. The two married in 1967, and up until his death in the spring of 2015, Bill was a respected ear, nose, and throat surgeon in Southeast Wisconsin. Darling and her husband have two children and three grandchildren. She is a longtime resident of River Hills, Wisconsin, which she represents in the Senate.

Wisconsin State Legislature

Darling first joined the Wisconsin State Legislature by winning a special election in 1990 for the 10th district, defeating Rick Graber in the primary. She served the remainder of the term and a full two-year term in the State Assembly before being elected in 1992 to the state Senate, a seat she has held ever since. Unopposed in regular elections since 2008, Darling announced in July of 2019 that she would be running for re-election in the 2020 election cycle.
Since 2000, she has served on the Joint Finance Committee, the state's budget-writing committee, and currently serves as the Senate co-chair. In addition to the Joint Finance Committee, Darling serves as Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Education, and also serves on the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, the Committee on Universities, Technical Colleges, Children and Families, the Joint Committee on Employment Relations, Joint Legislative Audit Committee, and the Joint Legislative Council.

2011 recall

Darling was one of nine Senators to face a recall election effort in 2011 following the enactment of 2011 Wisconsin Act 10. On March 2, 2011 the "Committee to Recall Darling" officially registered with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board and on April 20, 2011, the recall campaigns announced that they had gathered nearly 30,000 signatures - enough to trigger a recall election. The 8th Senate District was considered a heavy target for Democrats and outside spending, yet Darling would defeat Democratic challenger Sandy Pasch by a larger margin than she had won in 2008; 54 percent to 46 percent. The election was notably the last race to be called with the balance of the Senate and the ultimate fate of Republican reforms at stake, and received national coverage on election night as a result.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Assembly (1990)

Wisconsin Senate (1992-2016)