Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford rarely stops working. Whether she’s running Lady Laughs Comedy (which she founded), creating and printing zines about community care, hustling between day jobs, or tending to her duties as a Madison alder, Dina Nina embodies a service-based ethic. These days, she’s applying that drive toward a campaign to represent Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly district at the Capitol. If she wins, Dina would become the first transgender person ever elected to the Legislature.

No pressure. 

So far, Dina is doing her best to take it all in stride. In a wide-ranging interview with Our Lives in March, Dina reflected on her somewhat unusual and unexpected path to her current campaign for state office. From a religious upbringing in Texas to brushes with comedic fame and the scraping-by hustle of Los Angeles to finally and unexpectedly finding community in Madison, Dina is, overall, grateful and determined.

One of her go-to jokes is to note that, when she first made the move to the Midwest, she was sure she’d either end up “getting murdered or married. Neither has happened, for better or worse.” It’s a bit of dark humor that’s characteristic of her, a piece of armor against a world where transgender women in particular face disproportionately high rates of discrimination and violence. 

What she didn’t know at the time was that the secret third option would end up being “go into politics.” But Dina has always been community-centered. She believes deeply in the power of regular folks to build a better world for each other. Electoral politics is just one of many tools toward that goal, one that didn’t initially feel accessible to Dina. But time, experience, and a supportive community have opened that door to her.

“I have a responsibility to people,” she adds from a seat behind her colorfully cluttered desk in a small office on Madison’s east side. “None of us know how long we’re going to live. But somebody has to do it. And I’m in a place where I could potentially do that. The privilege of that is not lost on me.”

The Unlikely Politician

Dina is competing in a crowded Democratic primary to be held on August 11. The winner of that primary will almost certainly go on to win the general election in November, in a district that is about as deep blue as they come. Rep. Francesca Hong, the Democratic Socialist now running for governor, has held the office since 2021.

Dina’s campaign focuses are affordable housing, increasing the minimum wage for regular and tipped workers, funding for public education, and extending Badgercare to any and every Wisconsinite who wants it (you can see her full list of policy focuses at votedinanina.com). She’s received the endorsement of 65 current and former elected officials in the state. 

Still, there’s no clear frontrunner in the race and plenty of obstacles to overcome on the way. She talks openly about her struggles with housing and food insecurity. It’s a perspective she believes gives her a leg up as a civil servant—she’s lived with those challenges and understands the needs of everyday people. Even so, she says she feels conflicted about asking for campaign donations.

“There are so many other places where money is needed to help people,” she notes. “Campaigns shouldn’t cost so much. It keeps a lot of people out who would be great elected officials because they just can’t afford it.”

Regardless, being elected twice to represent Madison’s District 15 has clearly shown that plenty of people feel good about supporting her. This wouldn’t be her first time making history, either, as she became the city’s first transgender person elected to the Common Council with her win in 2023. And despite initially suspending her campaign for reelection in 2025 due to a series of major life changes, constituents reelected her anyway.

“It gave me new momentum and new hope for the future. It gave me more confidence,” she says. 

There were a series of moments that eventually guided Dina toward getting involved in politics. The final turning point, she says, came in the wake of the Club Q shooting in Colorado in November 2022. It was that moment that finally galvanized Dina into action, doing something she’d been urging others to do for years by officially throwing her hat into a run for alder. Then as now, she focused her platform on LGBTQ+ rights and access to affordable housing and other issues especially important for people working in the service and other low-income industries. 

“The deeper I get, the more I see the problems in more places than I ever wanted to,” she muses. “As someone who struggles, I will say this a million times, I know what it’s like to eat rice for an entire month. That’s a problem! It’s not just trans people that are experiencing it, it’s all of us. I want to find ways to make that better.”

Statewide office, Dina believes, is the place to make more of a difference on the wide scale needed to meaningfully tackle those issues for Wisconsinites. And after two terms as a Madison alder, Dina says she’s learned a lot of valuable lessons about good government and what’s possible when people work together that she’s excited to apply at the state level. 

“When I first became an alder, it was a big learning curve, as it is for anyone. I think I’ve learned how not to just say everything that pops into my head,” she says with a laugh. “I learned that most people just need help wrapping their head around things they’re unfamiliar with, and that our communities are important to all of us, you know? But we’re not all going to have the same opinion about the best ways to take care of those communities. We need to listen to each other more. I got the chance to really have conversations with constituents and community elders. I learned just how much collaboration it takes to get from point A to point B. It’s astounding, the layers to government that you don’t consider when you haven’t been there. It’s intimidating at first, especially when you don’t come from a typical political background. But those conversations with people, with constituents and staff and other people who really value our city, it’s just beautiful. The good and the bad, the hard and the easy, and I think I value that a lot more than I did when I first came in.”

The Path to Purpose

Born and raised in Texas, Dina’s road to Madison was hardly direct. She traveled the country as a small group pastor for non-denominational evangelical churches and was eventually assigned to Sydney, Australia to “plant” a new church. It became a turning point, as years of internal searching and clashes with church authority opened her eyes to a more authentic path.

“I truly believed and tried really hard, tried to pray that gay away,” she says with a rueful chuckle. “There was finally a point where I was just so done jumping through hoops. I was done. I finally was just like, ‘I’m just me.’”

Instead of crossing an ocean, Dina headed to Los Angeles, where she spent 10 years building a stand-up career. LA, she says, gave her space to find herself.

“I was far enough away from my family and religion. It was still scary, because there’s that voice in your head saying, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ But one day, waiting for a bus, I had this connection with the divine. I realized I needed to be visible—it could help someone in the middle of the country see themselves and not want to kill themselves. It was liberating. I took my first HRT shot in January 2007. And all the things I feared didn’t happen. For the first time, I understood myself. I started feeling better about who I was and how I showed up in the world.”

At the urging of her best friend, Greg Potter, she eventually moved to Madison. She found community working at Monty’s Blue Plate Diner, where she met another trans staff member and built lasting friendships with regulars.

She’s since built a mini comedy empire, launching Lady Laughs as a hub for stand-up, improv and sketch, and producing a festival spotlighting women and LGBTQ+ performers in an industry still dominated by white men.

When asked whether comedy helps her navigate politics, Dina’s answer is layered.

“When I’m more resourced emotionally, I’m great. Comedy is a craft and a way of looking at the world. It doesn’t make you bulletproof, but it helps,” she says. “I’ll be honest, though—I do get dark sometimes. There’s been a lot of death in my life. I think the main way I get through it is knowing I’m giving somebody else a reason to keep living. Representation makes a difference.”

The Future is Connected

All of her experiences now shape the issues she prioritizes. She sees them not as isolated, but intertwined.

“We talk about things as if they’re siloed, but nothing in public life really is. It’s all connected,” Dina says. She points to how stable, affordable housing leads to better outcomes for children, and how well-funded schools support healthier, more connected communities.

“When we invest in programs that empower the most vulnerable, it becomes less expensive in the long run,” she says. “It’s the same with health care. Hospitals are closing, especially in rural areas. How can people work or kids learn if they can’t stay healthy? When we invest in health care for everyone, we prevent bigger, more expensive problems. When you’re healthy, housed and safe, life is better for all of us.”

That interconnected view is driving her toward state-level work. Her lived experience keeps her grounded in the realities people face.

Board of Education clerk Ali Muldrow was the first elected official to endorse Dina. “Dina centers empathy in everything she does. She shows up. She listens. She cares,” Muldrow says. “Her focus on affordable housing and public education makes her an easy choice to support. I’m excited to help elect this thoughtful leader to the Wisconsin State Assembly.”

Time will tell what the electoral outcome will be, but there’s no doubt Dina will remain a fierce, compassionate, and good-humored force for good in Wisconsin.