Mark Pocan

Pocan was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He graduated from Harvey Elementary School, Washington Junior High School, and Mary D. Bradford High School in 1982 where he was elected senior class president. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1986.

Shortly after graduating, Pocan opened up his own small business, a printing company named Budget Signs & Specialties, which he continues to own and run as of 2012. He is a member of the AFL-CIO, which he joined as a small business owner.[3]

Pocan's active years at UW-Madison in College Democrats led to his election in 1991 to the Dane County Board of Supervisors where he served Madison’s downtown community for three terms, leaving the board in 1996.

Pocan in July 2018

Pocan identifies as a progressive Democrat, and is a member of organizations including Wisconsin Citizens Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, Fair Wisconsin[17] and Midwest Progressive Elected Officials Network. He is also one of the few progressive Democrats to have joined the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative-leaning organization that produces model legislative proposals. Pocan used his membership to investigate the organization's agenda and sponsors and wrote a series of articles on his experiences with ALEC for the Madison-based magazine The Progressive.[18] On the September 29, 2012 edition of Moyers and Company, Pocan said, "ALEC is a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests that eventually the relationship culminates with some special interest legislation and hopefully that lives happily ever after as the ALEC model. Unfortunately what’s excluded from that equation is the public."[19]

In September 2018 Pocan supported legislation invoking the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to stop U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, saying, "The world’s worst humanitarian crisis has been triggered by our secretive, illegal war in Yemen waged alongside the Saudi regime. As the Saudis use famine as a weapon of war, starving millions of innocent Yemenis to near death, the United States fuels, coordinates and provides bombs for Saudi airstrikes, and secretly deploys the military to participate in on-the-ground operations with Saudi troops.”[20]

In April 2019, after the House passed the resolution withdrawing American support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Pocan was one of nine lawmakers to sign a letter to President Trump requesting a meeting with him and urging him to sign "Senate Joint Resolution 7, which invokes the War Powers Act of 1973 to end unauthorized US military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's armed conflict against Yemen's Houthi forces, initiated in 2015 by the Obama administration." They asserted the "Saudi-led coalition's imposition of an air-land-and-sea blockade as part of its war against Yemen’s Houthis has continued to prevent the unimpeded distribution of these vital commodities, contributing to the suffering and death of vast numbers of civilians throughout the country" and that Trump's signing the resolution would give a "powerful signal to the Saudi-led coalition to bring the four-year-old war to a close."[21]

Pocan supports decreasing U.S. military spending.[22] Pocan, Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee attempted to reduce the size of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, but their motion was rejected 93-324. The Congressional Progressive Caucus cochairs Jayapal and Pocan declared: "Every handout to Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman is money that could have been spent on ending [COVID-19] pandemic, keeping small businesses afloat and staving off an economic meltdown."[23]

Pocan is openly gay. He credits his political activism in part to an incident soon after he graduated from college and opened his printing business, when two men followed him after he left a gay bar and beat him with a baseball bat while they called him "faggot" and other slurs.[24] This gaybashing incident spurred him to become active in the Madison LGBT community.[25] Pocan was the only openly gay member of the state Assembly after Tammy Baldwin's election to Congress, and one of three LGBT members of the 100th Wisconsin Legislature,[3] alongside Sen. Tim Carpenter (D–Milwaukee) and bisexual Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D–Milwaukee).

On November 24, 2006, Pocan and his long-term partner, Philip Frank, were legally married in Toronto, Ontario.[26]

Pocan's brother William Pocan serves as a circuit court judge in Milwaukee County.[27]

Pocan has received the following recognitions while in office:

• Fair Wisconsin Statewide Leader Award (2009)
• Planned Parenthood Rebecca Young Leadership Award (2009)
• Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin Legislator of the Year (2008)[28]
• Wisconsin Library Association’s Public Policy Award (2008)
• Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault Voices of Courage Public Policy Award (2008)[29]
• Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Honor Roll (2008)[30]
• Wisconsin Aids Fund award (2007)
• Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Conservation Champion (2006)
• Wisconsin Counties Association Outstanding Legislator Award (2006 & 2008)
• Clean Wisconsin Clean 16 Award (2004, 2002 & 2000)
• ACLU Special Recognition Award (2001)
• Wisconsin Federation of Teachers State Employees Council Representative of the Year (2003 & 2002)
• Outreach Man of the Year (1999)[31]

• List of LGBT members of the United States Congress

• Meet Mark Pocan, the Original ALEC Spy, Molly Redden, The New Republic, July 25, 2012 | 9:05

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Pocan.

• Congressman Mark Pocan official U.S. House website
• Mark Pocan for Congress
• Mark Pocan at Curlie

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN