2020 election denial is on the ballot in Wisconsin this year. These are the candidates.
Two of the state’s five Republican members of Congress voted against certifying Biden’s victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania and both said they would have done the same in Wisconsin had it been subject to a vote (no senator lodged an objection on Wisconsin).
They’re both in overwhelmingly safe districts and face token Democratic challenges Nov. 8.
And the Trump-backed Republican nominee for governor has said he’d consider decertifying the 2020 election result if elected but refused to say whether he would certify the next presidential election if Trump makes another run and again loses Wisconsin.
Here are details on the candidates who have bought into the “Big Lie."
Tim Michels, candidate for governor
Bio: Michels, 60, entered the race late and was propelled to an Aug. 9 Republican primary victory on the strength of Donald Trump's endorsement and vast personal resources he poured into the campaign. He is the co-owner of Michels Corp., an energy and infrastructure subcontractor based in Brownsville, Wis., and among the world's top petroleum contractors.
Actions: Michels, the Trump endorsed candidate, has said he would consider decertifying the 2020 election result, which will be more than two-years-old at the point he becomes governor if he is elected in November.
Michels also has called to abolish the Wisconsin Elections Commission and eliminate all rules the commission sets for local clerks that help them carry out elections.
He has refused to say whether he would certify the next presidential election if Trump makes another run and again loses Wisconsin.
He also would not say whether he agreed with Trump’s false assertion that he was the winner in Wisconsin or whether he believed Biden’s margin of victory was a result of fraud as Trump contends.
"A lot of people have questions about the 2020 election, as do I. Here's what is very concerning to me, we are 18 months now from the 2020 election. And we're still having a conversation here in Wisconsin, here in America, about the election in 2020. That is absolutely insane," Michels said.
"We are not a third-world country. We are not a banana republic. This is the United States of America. People should not have questions about the integrity, the transparency and the honesty of an election."
Michels said as governor he will work with the state Legislature to fix the "big problems that we had in 2020," citing the use of ballot drop boxes and private grant funding to administer elections. But he did not answer how such features of the last presidential election resulted in a suspicious outcome.
"No one knows what the extent of the election fraud was and that's the problem. The fact that you're asking me or anyone this question right now, is really the root of the issue here," Michels said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany
Bio: Tiffany, 64, was elected to the House in a special election in May of 2020 to complete the unexpired term of Sean Duffy in a district representing the northern part of Wisconsin. He went on to win a full two-year term six months later. Before that Tiffany was a state senator since 2013 and spent two decades running Wilderness Cruises in the north woods of Wisconsin.
Actions: Tiffany voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
"The election improprieties were significant in both of those states. Because of the narrowness of those races, it called into question those elections. So I did choose to vote for them, in particular Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's system is scrambled right now and they need to get that fixed."
He was among 106 House Republicans to sign on to a brief that supported the State of Texas in its bid to overturn election results in four battleground states that backed Biden — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald
Bio: Fitzgerald, 58, was the powerful majority leader of the Wisconsin state Senate before he left the state legislature to run for the congressional seat being vacated by longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner. Fitzgerald easily kept the seat in Republican hands in the 2020 election. Fitzgerald had 27 years of military service, according to his congressional biography. He jointed the Army Reserve in 1981 and retired in 2009 a lieutenant colonel.
Actions: Fitzgerald voted against certifying the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Aides to Fitzgerald (then the majority leader of the state Senate) reserved rooms in the state Capitol on the day false electors met there to sign paperwork.
Fitzgerald said he did not expect to change the election outcome and swing the presidency to Donald Trump by his votes but said, "I was trying to give my voice" to those upset about how the election was conducted. Fitzgerald said he was less focused on claims of fraudulent voting than on how the election was administered in the pandemic.
Tiffany accused the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin of failing to uphold the law and claimed without foundation that "unscrupulous" officials in Dane County and Milwaukee County allowed "hundreds of thousands of illegal votes to be cast and counted."
Derrick Van Orden, candidate for U.S. House
Bio: Van Orden, 53, is a retired Navy SEAL who entered the political scene in 2020 when he lost a close race to unseat longtime Democratic Congressman Ron Kind in western Wisconsin. Kind, one of a handful of Democrats to win in districts Trump carried in 2016 and 2020, announced he would not run for re-election in 2022. Van Orden is running for the 3rd District seat again against state Sen. Brad Pfaff.
Actions: Van Orden attended the Jan. 6, 2021 Trump rally at the Ellipse, which was based on the false claim the election was stolen, but contends he did not accompany the group that then entered the Capitol.
"When it became clear that a protest had become a mob, I left the area as to remain there could be construed as tacitly approving this unlawful conduct. At no time did I enter the grounds, let alone the building."
Democrats have said photographs, including one published in the Daily Beast, show Van Orden beyond the restricted area near the Capitol during the insurrection. Van Orden has denied those claims.