{"id":29360,"date":"2021-02-19T17:06:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T23:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29360"},"modified":"2021-02-19T17:06:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T23:06:26","slug":"day-ready-for-legislative-heavy-lifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29360","title":{"rendered":"Day ready for legislative heavy lifting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Above: Sen. Jen Day and her family at Rocky Mountain National Park in 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If one had to guess which current Nebraska state senator has competed in Olympic weightlifting at the international level, it might take a few guesses before choosing Omaha Sen. Jen Day.<\/p>\n<p>Born and raised in Sarpy County, Day has always been a natural athlete. Her early years were invested in gymnastics and competitive cheerleading. As an adult, she started chasing new goals, literally \u2014 competing in marathons and triathlons. Day\u2019s introduction to CrossFit and barbell lifting in 2009, however, was a personal turning point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWomen are kind of discouraged from lifting really heavy [weight] and getting involved in strength sports,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was interesting to me and I wanted to pursue it personally and get more women involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Day cofounded a strength and fitness center in Omaha with her husband, Jon, where she also coaches athletes. Like many families, they have had to learn to balance work schedules while also supporting their sons \u2014 Canyon, 12, and Noah, 8 \u2014 through remote learning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has definitely been difficult, but we\u2019re so fortunate to have a lot of family in Omaha that have helped support us, taking care of the kids while we had to go to work,\u201d she said. \u201cBut my kids are very independent and they\u2019re just wonderful little people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was her experience as a parent that spurred Day to get involved in local politics. After opening her business, she made the decision to go back to school to earn her bachelor\u2019s degree in political science.<\/p>\n<p>Day graduated thinking that she would work on political campaigns as a manager or staff member. When she found herself frustrated by her representation in the Legislature, however, she didn\u2019t complain about it. She filed her paperwork to run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that a lot of people think that it requires years of experience as a politician to be \u2018qualified\u2019 to run for office,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the truth at all. I think sometimes having a more adequate representative government \u2014 in terms of having people in office that are a lot like their constituency \u2014 is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Day says she is \u201cecstatic\u201d to be working on issues close to her heart as a member of the Education and Health and Human Services committees. Despite the long days and heavy workload of a state senator, she welcomes the nonstop pace of her new job with the passion and energy one might expect from a lifelong athlete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, I\u2019ve had a lot of jobs in my life that I have really, really loved,\u201d Day said. \u201cBut the work [in the Legislature] is so fulfilling and wonderful that I don\u2019t mind the busy aspect of it. I just feel very privileged to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If one had to guess which current Nebraska state senator has competed in Olympic weightlifting at the international level, it might take a few guesses before choosing Omaha Sen. Jen Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[265],"class_list":["post-29360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-jen-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/MeetDay_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29373,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29360\/revisions\/29373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}