Democratic Wisconsin Rep. Robyn Vining, now a candidate for State Senate, met at the Capitol last year and effusively praised Diego Rodriguez, a convicted child sex criminal and the now-former Vice Chair of the Demcoratic Party of Wisconsin’s Latino Caucus.
On September 17, 2025, Vining posted a picture of the meeting on her official legislative Facebook account and thanked Rodriguez for meeting with her to discuss maternal health for women in prison.
“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.”
Vining then praised Rodrigueze’s work on the issue, which she said helped to provide “doulas and other support services to incarcerated women giving birth and is a proven model in driving better health outcomes.”
Rodriguez is a convicted child sex criminal who pleaded guilty in 2015 of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. He admitted to having sex with teenage boys on multiple occasions, including in an alley behind a Target store in Waukesha. Police arrested him after he set up a sexual encounter with an undercover investigator posing as a 15-year-old boy on the gay dating app Grindr.
Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison and five more on extended supervision and will remain on Wisconsin’s sex offender registry until 2040.
In spite of this, Rodriguez was very well-connected in Democrat circles and served as vice chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s Latino Caucus. He also managed the re-election campaign of Democratic Assembly Rep. Priscilla Prado and canvassed for both Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley and Democrat Assembly candidate Ismael Luna.
Video the Latino Caucus posted to Facebook on the day of the Demcoratic primary August 11 showed him knocking on doors for Democrats and urging others to join him. That night, he attended Crowley’s victory party and was featured prominently in photos the Democratic Party of Wisconsin shared on its official Instagram page.
Those photos and videos were removed as soon as the Heartland Post and “The Dan O’Donnell Show” exposed Rodriguez’s deep ties to Democrats, and the state party and Prado immediately cut ties with him. The Hispanic News Network first reported on Rodriguez’s criminal conviction Monday.
