John Nygren


John Nygren is an American insurance and financial services agent, former restaurateur, and Republican politician from Marinette, Wisconsin. He has served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly's 89th Assembly District since 2007. At the beginning of the 2013–2014 legislature, Nygren was named the Assembly Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee on Finance.

Background

Nygren is a fourth generation resident of northeast Wisconsin. He graduated from Marinette High School in 1982, studied at the University of Wisconsin-Marinette, and worked in the restaurant industry for over 12 years, eventually becoming co-owner/operator of his own establishment. In 1998 he started work at Great Lakes Financial Management Group selling insurance and other financial services.
Nygren was involved with the Jaycees, serving as Marinette's chapter president, the regional director for Northeast Wisconsin, Wisconsin state president, and United States national president.

Elective office

Nygren was chairman of the Marinette County Republican Party and served on the City of Marinette Recreation
and Planning Board from 2003 to 2006. In the September 2006 primary election to succeed fellow Republican John Gard for the 89th District, Nygren narrowly defeated Gary Drzewiecki, with 2777 votes to Drzewiecki's 2740, and went on in November to defeat Democrat Randy Koehn. He was assigned to the standing committees on insurance, education, health and health care reform; and jobs and the economy
Nygren ran unopposed in the 2008 Republican primary, again faced Koehn in the general election, and again defeated him, 14,814 to 12,839. In 2010 he was again unopposed in the primary, and defeated Democrat Bob Orwig by 15,788 to 7,520.

2011 run for state Senate

In 2011, Nygren sought to run against incumbent Democratic state senator Dave Hansen, who was the subject of a recall election; but the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board ruled that he was two signatures short of the necessary 400 signatures on his nomination petition, and would not be on the ballot.

2012 election

In 2012 Nygren was unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated Abrams Town Chairman Joe Reinhard in the general election 59%–41%.

2014 election

In 2014 Nygren was unopposed in both the Republican primary and the general election, taking 99.38% of the general election vote.

Personal life

Nygren is married to Maggie, a family and consumer education teacher at Marinette High School, and they have three children; Cassie, Cali and Colin. The Nygren family is active at Faith Lutheran Church. John serves as church elder, and previously spent four years as church president.
In January 2020, Nygren's daughter, Cassie, was found guilty of being a party to a first-degree reckless homicide stemming from the death of a pregnant woman to whom she sold drugs.

Electoral history