Cheyenne Langkamp
Happ (left): 'It's 2014, it's time to move forward.'
Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ was the only candidate for Wisconsin attorney general to pay a visit to Madison's City-County Building on Saturday.
"I just wanted to see history in its making," Happ said of the same-sex couples getting married that afternoon, following U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb's ruling that found Wisconsin's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional.
Happ was at the state's Democratic Party convention in the Wisconsin Dells on Friday when she heard the news.
"The clapping broke out, the roars broke out, and I got goose bumps," she said.
Happ said she would "absolutely not defend" the state ban if she were currently serving as attorney general, adding that it is "basically legalized discrimination."
"That's not who we are as Wisconsinites, that's not who we are as United States citizens," she said.
Both of Happ's opponents in the Democratic primary for attorney general, state Rep. Jon Richards and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, hailed Crabb's ruling on same-sex marriage. Republican attorney general candidate Brad Schimel has said he would defend the state's marriage ban.
Happ sees the issue not as a partisan, but as one of equal rights.
"It's 2014, it's time to move forward," she said. "We've got much more pressing issues than trying to interfere with people's ability to marry who they love."