For the last twenty eight years, she has lived, worked, and raised her family in Milwaukee. LaTonya owned and operated a licensed in-home childcare service. She served as President AFSCME Local 502, the union representing in-home childcare providers in Milwaukee. When Act 10 was passed in 2011, she saw her income collapse. Changes in the way the union was able to advocate for consistent wages for childcare providers were detrimental. "This is the not the Milwaukee I moved to" she said in the wake of Act 10. When a seat opened up in the State Assembly in 2012, LaTonya decided to run for office to champion workers and working families in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. She went through Emerge Wisconsin, an intensive training program for progressive women who want to run for office and is a proud alum of the Class of 2012.

LaTonya won a four-way Democratic primary and the general election. She served in the State Assembly for four years, serving on the Consumer Protection, Children & Families, Criminal Justice, and Urban Education committees.

In 2016, LaTonya announced her run for the open 6th district State Senate seat. Once again, she won this election and was inaugurated in January 2017. Her first bill was to make juvenile correctional officers mandatory reporters, after the Lincoln Hills child abuse scandal revealed this oversight in our mandatory reporting laws. This bill faced little opposition in either house of the State Legislature.