High-ranking Democrats in the Wisconsin Legislature planned to run convicted child sex offender Diego A. Rodriguez for State Assembly and knew about his criminal record for nearly a year, three legislative sources confirmed to The Heartland Post.
Rodriguez even moved from his home in Waukesha into the 8th Assembly District in Milwaukee this January in preparation for a run before the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee (ADCC) decided that his record would make him unelectable. The ADCC, is run by Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, and oversees Democrats’ Assembly campaigns. Two different sources with direct knowledge of its operations confirmed to The Heartland Post that the ADCC was aware that Rodriguez was a convicted pedophile.
“They absolutely knew,” one source said.
Rather than remove him from his post as vice chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Latino Caucus, though, the ADCC allowed him to run two different Assembly re-election campaigns and work for such high-profile Democrats as Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez (no known relation) and Waukesha Mayor Alicia Halvensleben.
A spokesperson for the ADCC denied that the organization had vetted Rodriguez or talked with him about a possible run.
“No one at the Assembly Democrats ever spoke to Diego Rodriguez about running for Assembly,” the spokesperson said. “He has never been screened or employed by the caucus. He was employed by one of our members. When she was made aware of his record, she immediately stopped working with him.”
When informed of that statement, one source told The Heartland Post simply: “That is a lie.”
Two different Democrats, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal from the party, confirmed to The Heartland Post that the ADCC was aware of Rodriguez’s crimes because it was told that they would render him unelectable and that an alternative candidate would need to run.
Rodriguez was convicted in 2016 of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and sentenced to five years in prison and five more on extended supervision. He was also charged with three counts of sex with a child 16 or older. Those charges were dismissed but read into the record as part of a plea agreement Rodriguez reached with prosecutors.
He used the gay dating app Grindr to arrange hookups with multiple teenage boys, having sexual contact with them in his home and an alley behind a Target store in Waukesha. He was arrested after arranging to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old boy, at one messaging him “Hey man, this is Diego. Are you horny?”
The boy was actually a Waukesha Police detective conducting a sting operation, and he arrested Rodriguez when Rodriguez showed up for a planned sexual encounter in a Wendy’s parking lot. Upon his conviction, Rodriguez was placed on Wisconsin’s sex offender registry, where he will remain until 2040.
When Democrat leaders learned just how horrific Rodriguez’s crimes were, they determined that he would not be electable and pulled their support for his candidacy, but still allowed him to run re-election campaigns for Democrat Rep. Priscilla Prado and candiate Kevin Reilly.
They also remained silent as Rodriguez canvassed neighborhoods in Milwaukee, knocking on residents’ doors in support of Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley and Assembly candidate Ismael Luna, who replaced Rodriguez as the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate in the 8th Assembly District.
Luna defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez in the August primary and faces Republican Angel Sanchez in November’s general election. Ortiz-Velez infuriated Neubauer and other Democrat leaders by repeatedly crossing party lines to vote with Republicans on various bills, and Democrats openly supported a primary challenge to her.
Three different sources with direct knowledge of the planning for that challenge told The Heartland Post that Rodriguez, who was very popular in Democrat circles and open about his criminal past (although he lied about its severity), expressed interest in running against Ortiz-Velez and the ADCC gave its blessing.
Property records reveal that he moved into the 8th Assembly District in anticipation of a run, closing on a home there on January 24th.
Luna, however, raised concerns to ADCC over Rodriguez’s past and suggested that he would be a much better alternative. The party agreed, and Luna launched his campaign on February 28th.
Despite knowing that Rodriguez was a convicted pedophile, though, Democrat leaders went silent about his crimes and allowed Rodriguez continue serving as vice chairman of the Latino Caucus and begin managing Reilly’s campaign in the 82nd Assembly District.
Campaign finance records show Reilly paid Rodriguez’s consulting firm, Adelante Collective, $1,000 in two $500 payments for Rodriguez’s services. Rodriguez is listed as the principal consultant at Adelante, which has no other known employees.
Rodriguez also worked on Democrat Waukesha Mayor Alicia Halvensleben’s campaign in Spring, although campaign finance records show no payments to Adelante, indicating that Rodriguez was a volunteer.
Reilly ended his campaign in May, citing family and health reasons, and Rodriguez began managing Prado’s re-election campaign. He also bragged to multiple Demcorats about being a paid staffer for Lt. Gov. Srara Rodriguez’s gubernatorial campaign, but no campaign finance records reveal any payments to him, indicating that he worked for the campaign on a volunteer basis.
Prado said she fired Rodriguez this week after learning about his crimes, but sources told The Heartland Post that it is highly unlikely that Prado did not at the very least know about Rodriguez’s criminal record since he was so open about it.
While running for Vice Chair of the Latino Caucus at the 2025 Wisonsin Democratic Convention, Rodriguez made a speech to members of the caucus (including Prado) in which he leaned on his past and supposed redemption as a reason to elect him. Because of his popularity within the caucus, Rodriguez ran unopposed for the position by affirmation.
Rodriguez also touted his criminal past and worked as an advocate for fellow former prison inmates, even meeting last September with Democrat Rep. Robyn Vining, who is now running for State Senate, to discuss maternity care for inmates.
Vining posted about the meeting on her official legislative Facebook page and praised Rodriguez for his work on the issue, which she called “a proven model in driving better health outcomes.”
“Shackling women during child birth is wrong and it needs to stop,” she wrote. “Today I met with Diego Rodriguez at the Ostara Initiative, which supports pregnant and parenting, justice-involved people. We discussed anti-shackling legislation, and also how we can support pregnant women, mothers, and their children experiencing the justice system. Everyone has a right to quality care.”
