WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes to step down; Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin clinics face closures

September 15, 2025

— Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes will be stepping down from her post later this month.

She’s held the position since September 2019, when Gov. Tony Evers appointed her to the role. Evers in a press release announcing Hughes’ decision touted her work to commit over $8 billion in planned investments, adding WEDC has played a key role in growing Wisconsin’s economic future, such as growing partnerships with major businesses Eli Lilly and Company, Kikkoman and Microsoft.

Hughes said she’s grateful to have been a part of the Evers administration.

“Each of our state’s successes serves to inspire more development, more innovation, and more growth,” she said. “People start seeing something good happening in their communities, and they want to keep it moving forward. Opportunities to be in the national news for positive accomplishments show companies and talent that Wisconsin competes on the global stage.”

Evers said Hughes played an important role in helping build an economy that works for every Wisconsinite by investing in homegrown talent, local communities and expanding some of “the state’s most iconic brands and companies while attracting new industries and opportunities here to Wisconsin.”

“Over the past six years, we’ve harnessed the ingenuity and innovation of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and local economies, created good-paying, family supporting jobs in critically important sectors, and we’ve worked to put Wisconsin on the map as a tough competitor for workers, new ideas, and emerging industries and markets,” he said.

The news comes as Hughes is expected to step into the Democratic primary for governor alongside Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. State Democratic lawmakers from Madison Rep. Francesca Hong and Sen. Kelda Roys are also expected to jump into the race.

Hughes before taking the top spot at WEDC worked for 16 years as chief mission officer and general counsel for Organic Valley, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative.

— Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin clinics may face closures due to a provision in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that prohibits the nonprofit from receiving Medicaid reimbursement for its many services.

For decades, the Hyde Amendment has largely barred federal funds from paying for abortion services, but this provision goes further. It bars Medicaid reimbursement for all Planned Parenthood services, including contraception care, STD testing, cancer screenings and more.

The provision implemented a one-year ban on all federal funding to organizations that provide abortion services and receive more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements.

As a result, PPWI may not be able to support patients who rely on Medicaid as health insurance. Sydney Anderson, government relations specialist at PPWI, said more than 60% of PPWI’s patients — about 30,000 people — would no longer have access to services. Considering that state and federal funds, including Medicaid, accounts for one third of Planned Parenthood’s revenue, the national nonprofit said it expects 200 clinics to close. A majority of the clinics at risk provide abortion services.

Anderson said that PPWI does not have a set number of clinics expected to close in Wisconsin but said the organization would evaluate at a later time.

Anderson said this provision will limit access to reproductive health care for all people in the state, regardless of their medical coverage.

“We should all understand that all of our health care centers are at risk,” Anderson said.

However, anti-abortion activists — such as Matt Sande, legislative director at Pro-Life Wisconsin — refute the nonprofit’s claim that access to reproductive care will be threatened.

“We have this notion that without Planned Parenthood, women can’t access women’s health care. It’s just untrue. It’s factually incorrect,” Sande said.

See more in the WisPolitics Friday REPORT.

— Democrats last week began circulating legislation that would include a line on property tax statements showing how much of their bill is going to voucher schools.

Property tax bills currently parse out where the money property owners pay goes, including how much of it goes to public schools, but Democratic lawmakers want bills to also show how much money is being taken from public schools and being put toward private schools.

They argue in the cosponsorship memo announcing the bill that it would improve transparency.

— Republican senators introduced a bill to appropriate $42 million in state funds to Domtar Paper Company to modernize a dam on the Wisconsin River in Rothschild.

The money would come with some strings attached, though. Domtar would need to begin the modernization process for the dam, which is related to the company’s paper mill function, by the end of next year, or return all the money to the state. The company would also have to return all the money if it sells either mills in Rothschild or Nekoosa before the project is done.

Domtar would also have to return at least some of the funding if it’s able to raise more than two-thirds of the project costs from all sources, including the state.

The roughly 14,000-employee company would also be required to invest at least $100 million in its manufacturing facilities in Rothschild and Nekoosa within three years, and would have to exclusively use roundwood and wood chips produced in Wisconsin at its Rothschild facility.

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