Melissa Agard

Melissa Kristen Agard (born March 28, 1969) is an American small business owner and Democratic politician from Madison, Wisconsin. She is the county executive of Dane County, Wisconsin, since November 2024. She is also a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing Wisconsin's 16th Senate district from 2021 until her term expires at the end of 2024. While in the Senate, she served as minority leader in 2023.^[1] She previously served four terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, when she was primarily known by her married name Melissa Sargent.

Agard was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated from Madison East High School.^[2][3] She earned her bachelor's degree in Psychology from University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1991.^[4]

She went to work as a business manager for Hyperion Studio in Madison, then co-founded Opacolor LLC with her father, Steven. Opacolor is a digital photography and print studio which Agard continues to own and operate. They specialize in original giclée prints.^[5]

In 2010, Agard's neighbors on the north side of Madison urged her to seek a newly-vacant seat on the Dane County Board of Supervisors.^[6] Agard later described her situation: "At that point, I owned my own business, I had three kids, and I just found out I was pregnant with my fourth. And I was 40 years old and feeling like one more thing on my plate would cause me to topple over." She then explained that her children came home from school that day complaining about having to do a community service project. She told them to tough it out, then decided she should do the same.^[6] Agard won election to the county board and was part of the liberal majority on that body for four years, chairing the Health and Human Needs Committee.^[7]

For fifty consecutive days during the 2011 Wisconsin protests against Governor Scott Walker's controversial "Budget Repair" legislation (2011 Wisconsin Act 10) which abolished collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employees, Agard says that she, often accompanied by one or more of her four children, joined in the mass demonstrations, whether in the Wisconsin State Capitol or (after officials locked the Capitol), outside in the Wisconsin cold. On March 27, 2011, when the State Capitol Police ordered her three older boys to take down their protest sign proclaiming "Solidarity Forever" which was being displayed outside the "Designated Demonstration Area" they refused, and Agard was issued a ticket (said ticket was later dismissed).^[6][8][9]

Following the drastic Republican redistricting in 2011, which scrambled the Madison-area assembly districts, Agard was able to run for Wisconsin State Assembly in the newly drawn 48th assembly district without an opponent from either major political party.^[10][11] She defeated independent Libertarian candidate Terry Gray with 83% of the general election vote.^[12] She was reelected without any opposition in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

In 2020, longtime state senator Mark F. Miller announced he would not seek reelection to a fifth term. The Madison-based senate seat attracted many interested potential candidates, but ultimately Agard had only one opponent in the Democratic primary—Monona Grove School Board president Andrew McKinney.^[13][14] During the primary, she renewed her commitment to pursue full decriminalization of marijuana in the state, as well as increasing the minimum wage, protecting labor rights, and providing more affordable housing.^[15] Agard prevailed in the primary, taking more than 76% of the vote.^[16] She went on to win a similarly substantial 73% majority over Republican Scott Barker in the 2020 general election.^[17]

On November 16, 2022, she was voted the Minority Leader of the Wisconsin Senate, succeeding Senator Janet Bewley who chose not to run for reelection.^[18]

In November 2023, Agard announced that she would run for Dane County executive in a special election to be held in 2024, following the early resignation of Joe Parisi.^[19] Agard advanced from the August primary and won the special election on November 5, 2024, defeating county supervisor Dana Pellebon.^[20]

Agard married Justin S. Sargent in 1997. Justin Sargent was then a legislative aide to Democratic state senator Charles Chvala and now works as chief of staff to state senator Chris Larson.^[21] They had four sons before divorcing in 2019.^[22]

• Profile at the Wisconsin Senate
• Campaign website
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Melissa Sargent at Ballotpedia
• Assembly website (Archived - 11/8/2020)
• Opacolor LLC
• Melissa Agard on LinkedIn