“After my husband was paralyzed I was fortunate to have the Americans with Disabilities Act laws on our side. Because we had our rights, I learned how to use my power to create change!
I am not about to sit around today and let one authoritarian president with a cadre of wimpy, uneducated, undemocratic, followers - called Republicans - continue to take away our rights!
We are a government of the people, by the people, for the people. I have power and I know how to use it! So do you! Let's be the change!”
LuAnn
Politics can be fun. My friend Chris Porterfield organized musicians from the Milwaukee area to hold Birdsongs concerts in peoples back yards during my 2022 race. He and his friends put together “We May Well be the Ones, a benefit concert to raise money for my campaign. Thank you Field Report and Friends! Here is Women of the World!
LuAnn Bird founded Birds on a Wire in early 2025 to build a community of like minded people who share the same values, care about democracy, and need a place to turn their passion into action.
She ran for the State Assembly in 2022 and 2024, losing by very small margins each time. Her goal was not just to win elections, she wanted to change the broken political system.
Using the political power she built as a candidate, she is organizing her friends and supporters for an even bigger purpose - stopping this authoritarian regime!
Meeting every week, BOW plans events, organizes rapid responses when needed, makes phone calls, educates themselves and others on issues, interviews candidates, hosts a weekly protest on the corner of 76th and Layton in Greenfield on Saturday mornings and remembers to have fun.
Her endless energy, compassion for those who do not have a voice, ability to bring people together and her contagious optimism make her the perfect person to pull people together to collectively find a way through!
Representative Kalan Haywood during the Bird Campaign in 2022.
LuAnn lives in Hales Corners where she is a caregiver for her husband. Their daughter Elizabeth and her husband Adam are educators and their son Tom is a financial analyst. They also love to spend lots of time with their three grandsons.
Representative Robyn Vining during the Bird Campaign in 2022.
Fun times at the park with her grandkids and their two dogs, Biscuit and Lily.
Married to her soulmate Phil for 40 years.
Each year LuAnn organizes a team — Birds for Fisher House — to run/walk/roll in the 5K Famous Sausage Race to raise money for Fisher House Wisconsin.
LuAnn published a book with all of Phil's pictures from Vietnam and letters that he sent home so their grandsons would know "Grandpa's Story."
LuAnn and Phil took the boys to the traveling Vietnam Wall.
LuAnn and Phil are proud parents of Elizabeth, an educator and Tom, a financial analyst and three wonderful grandsons Ryan, Tyler and Kyle.
She loves spending time with her grandsons!
LuAnn converted a closet into an art room for her grandchildren. Volunteers can bring their kids into her home where there is always fun stuff to do!
LuAnn recorded a Bird on a Wire Podcast Series to have conversations on hope, civility, and action.