Today, Wisconsin Republicans released a report detailing the results of their partisan “investigation” into repeatedly-disproven claims of fraud in the 2020 election. While reporters should ask top candidates for Wisconsin governor, including Rebecca Kleefisch, Kevin Nicholson, and Timothy Ramthun about their reaction to this sham, anti-democratic “investigation,” their records speak for themselves.
Every Republican candidate for governor has already made it clear that they support wresting control of Wisconsin’s elections away from the people and giving it to far-right Trump supporters who will claim “voter fraud” at every election that doesn’t go their way.
These Republicans have made it clear that they are running solely to help Donald Trump win Wisconsin — and the presidency — when he runs again in 2024. They are not fringe candidates; this is the establishment Republican Party in 2022:
Rebecca Kleefisch
- “‘I would abolish WEC and I have said that,’ Kleefisch said last week to radio host Joe Giganti on WTAQ-AM in Green Bay.”
- “They have been a lawless agency and they have completely disregarded statutes and the constitution. I think they have turned our elections into a circus. And so whether we choose to put it under the Legislature or the secretary of state’s office, elections in Wisconsin must have more authority for the voters so that they have essentially one throat to choke. They need to be able to bounce someone from office, whether it’s the secretary of state or their legislator if elections go wrong.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/01/22]
Kevin Nicholson
- “If elected, I would abolish the WEC and make sure that if someone commits voter fraud, they go to jail. Period.”
- [Nicholson] also said all powers vested to the commission should be transferred to the Secretary of State “who is directly accountable to Wisconsin voters.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 02/12/22]
Timothy Ramthun
- “The resolution, authored by Ramthun, aims to recall Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes and includes a number of the allegations of fraud and illegal actions that Republicans have levied against election administrators for the past 15 months.”
- “The actions the resolution treats as suspect include the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, the acceptance of grant money to help fund election administration, the sending of absentee ballots to nursing home residents in order to avoid in-person visits by election workers to elderly people especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and the methods used to maintain the state’s voter registration lists. All of [Ramthun’s] allegations and theories have repeatedly been refuted by election administrators and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys have said ‘there is no mechanism in state or federal law for the Legislature to reverse certified votes cast by the Electoral College and counted by Congress.’” [Urban Milwaukee, 02/16/22]
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Published: Mar 1, 2022