Parade marshal for La Crosse’s 2024 Labor Day Parade, the people’s mayor — John D. Medinger

As Coulee Region residents prepare to celebrate Labor Day, the Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO is pleased to announce that this year’s parade marshal for La Crosse Labor Day will be John D. Medinger.

John D. Medinger is a man of the people and a champion of working families in the Coulee Region and beyond. John was born on April 26, 1948. A graduate of Aquinas High School, he went on to receive his bachelor’s and master’s degree from UW La Crosse before his lifelong dedication to public service. In 1972 John joined the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). He was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1976 representing the 95th District for 16 years (1976-1992), becoming Assistant Majority Leader of the Assembly.

After his time in the Assembly, John worked for US Senator Russ Feingold until 1996 when he ran for Mayor of La Crosse, winning and serving as mayor from 1997 to 2005. After leaving the mayor’s office, Medinger worked in US Senator Herb Kohl’s office. Later he was hired to work in US Senator Tammy Baldwin’s La Crosse office, retiring from that position in 2017. Medinger also worked at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse as an associate lecturer of political science and served as a member of the La Crosse County Board from 2006 until 2012.

In the private sector John’s been a service station operator, bus driver, bartender, construction worker, and grocery clerk.

He has been in the working man’s corner more times than this release could hope to list and was instrumental (along with then Labor Council President Terry Hicks) in creating and dedicating La Crosse’s Workers Memorial Monument in Green Island Park in La Crosse. The Labor Council bestowed John with the title of “Honorary Delegate” to the council for his lifetime of public service to the working men and women of the Coulee Region and beyond.

Perhaps it was US Senator Tammy Baldwin who described John best when she said, “traveling around Western Wisconsin with John Medinger is like being with a rock star.”

John is truly our rockstar, the working man’s hero, and the council is proud to have him as our Labor Day Parade Marshal in 2024.