Wisconsin Republicans Look To Recall Their Speaker for Insufficient Loyalty to Trump

‘We believe very much that Vos is an anti-Trumper, he said he’ll do everything in his power to keep Trump from getting re-elected,’ one GOP operative says.

Samantha Madar/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, file
Robin Vos during a press conference at the Wisconsin state capitol at Madison, February 15, 2023. Samantha Madar/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, file

Conservatives seeking to recall the speaker of the Wisconsin state assembly, Robin Vos, over his refusal to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state and impeach state election officials have until March 11 to collect the signatures required to call a recall election.

In an echo of other efforts around that country to purge from the party Republicans seen as insufficiently loyal to President Trump, some Wisconsin Republicans have attacked Mr. Vos for his refusal to overturn the 2020 election results in his state and his refusal to impeach the state’s top nonpartisan election official, Meagan Wolfe.

Mr. Trump himself has intervened in Mr. Vos’s political career, endorsing his primary challenger in the 2022 midterms, Adam Steen, and referring to Mr. Vos as Republican in name only

“Adam Steen is running to defeat your RINO speaker of the house, Robin Vos,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “Despite undeniable evidence of rigging and fraud, Speaker Vos has taken no steps to hold the Wisconsin Elections Commission accountable, clean up the voter rolls, or right any of the other terrible wrongs.”

An Associated Press review of Mr. Trump’s voter fraud claims in six states in 2020 found that, even if every ballot flagged as suspicious were fraudulent, it would only amount to a total of 475 votes.

In an interview with Congressman Matt Gaetz, an Arkansas lawyer who is working to recall Mr. Vos, Clint Lancaster, reiterated Mr. Trump’s claim that Mr. Vos is “anti-Trump.”

“We believe very much that Vos is an anti-Trumper, he said he’ll do everything in his power to keep Trump from getting re-elected,” Mr. Lancaster said.

Mr. Lancaster also accused Mr. Vos of corruption, saying that “there’s really no other way to explain it,” in reference to his refusal to impeach Ms. Wolfe and other election officials. Mr. Lancaster didn’t provide any evidence for his claims. The proposed Impeachment articles against Mr. Vos also do not mention corruption.

Mr. Vos in January responded to the attempt to impeach Ms. Wolfe, calling the push “a big show for the camera,” according to Spectrum News.

Although Ms. Wolfe is the highest-ranking elections commission official, the board she oversees is bipartisan and made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Elections in the state are also administered by more than 1,800 local clerks.

In Wisconsin, impeachable offenses include corrupt conduct or a committing a felony crime or misdemeanor. According to the impeachment resolution in the state assembly, Republicans are accusing Ms. Wolfe of “maladministration” in the 2020 election and refusing to properly safeguard against hypothetical future election fraud by Wisconsinites temporarily residing overseas.

Opponents of Mr. Vos have also attacked him for his support of Governor DeSantis in the GOP primary, an attack that Mr. Vos has, in turn, responded to in an ad.

“Out-of-state recall circulators are lying again, and I wanted to set the record straight right here and right now,” Mr. Vos said in an ad. “I supported Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary because I thought he had the best chance to beat Joe Biden in November.”

Mr. Vos added, “I would never vote for Joe Biden and will cast my ballot for the Republican nominee in November, Donald Trump.”

In Wisconsin, organizers need to collect a number of signatures equal to 25 percent of the number of voters in the last election in the district. In this case, that means they will need to collect 6,850 signatures from Mr. Vos’s district.

However, organizers will also need to convince a significant portion of GOP voters who supported Mr. Vos in 2022 to oppose him now. In 2022, Mr. Vos was re-elected with 73 percent of the vote despite opposition from Mr. Trump.


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  create a free account

By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use