Learn more about where Ginger has called home:

Ginger’s father, Lee Jazdzewski, born in the town of Nashville, WI, met her mother, Lou Duranceau, who was born in Merrill, WI, while they were both attending high school at D.C. Everest in Schofield, WI. Ginger Murray was born in Eau Claire, where her parents attended college. She lived in Rhinelander, Blackwell, Trump Lake, and Crandon. She credits her success to her family and her teachers. She was in a class of 36 students, taught by teachers who clearly loved their jobs and were fully invested in their students.

After completing her undergraduate studies at UW Madison, where she earned a degree in Behavioral Science and Law with a Certificate in Criminal Justice, she decided to attend law school in Mississippi. There, she spent part of her second year and all of her third year working on capital murder defense. After graduating, she returned home to Forest County. While studying for the bar exam, she worked at the Blackwell Job Corps program, just as her father had done, and at the Veterans Memorial Campground.

Her teachers encouraged her to run for District Attorney, and she did. While she did not win that election, she won over the judge and the people. The judge appointed her as Guardian Ad Litem, giving her the responsibility of representing children’s best interests, and later appointed her as the Forest County Family Court Commissioner. Members of the community hired her to assist with criminal cases, family cases, environmental law cases, and even to represent gaming commissioners for a tribe that believed they had been unfairly treated, which resulted in a settlement accepted as fair by all parties.

Ginger accepted appointments as both Special Prosecutor and Public Defender. The Oneida County judges appointed her as their Family Court Commissioner. In that role, she served as a department head and worked cooperatively with county boards, demonstrating how to secure more federal funding than her department had ever received before. She was appointed and later reelected as the City Attorney for Crandon and hired as the Town Attorney for Laona.

She held every elected position in the Oneida Vilas Forest County Bar Associations, served on the Crandon Lions Club, and was elected president. She served on the local Ruffed Grouse board for years. She worked with Judge Whitefish and Forest County law enforcement to create the first Coordinated Community Response Team for domestic violence situations. She was also on a bowling team, a softball team in Crandon and Wausau, shot darts, and played league pool in Forest County. She swam across Lake Metonga to prove she could, and later completed an Ironman. She participated as a student member of the Wabeno Mock Trial Team, and after returning from law school, she served as their coach.

Ginger’s immediate and extended family include loggers, truckers who transport the logs, teachers, mental health professionals, farmers, former owners of a local bus company, small business owners, mechanics, IT specialists, and workers at the post office, the Rhinelander paper mill, local corrections facilities, fast food restaurants, and charitable foundations. Their experiences range from the ground up to top leadership, with some holding college degrees and many without.

Ginger’s authentic and sustained relationships with family, peers, and community allow her to understand what her friends, relatives, colleagues, and Northwoods neighbors need to better provide for their families, ensure schools are fully funded, make quality health care affordable, secure jobs that pay fair wages and offer benefits such as insurance and retirement, and protect natural resources while supporting businesses that rely on those resources to harvest them sustainably.

Ginger’s personal experiences include ice fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, and working in the North Woods, where perseverance, partnership, and pride run deep. These experiences give her the knowledge to properly represent us, we the people of the Northwoods. From small towns and county seats to forested back roads and isolated farmhouses, Ginger has listened, learned, and led alongside neighbors who believe community is stronger when we move forward together. She has seen firsthand that progress is built through cooperation, not division, and that Better Together is not just a slogan, but a way of life shaped by shared work, shared values, and shared responsibility.