MADISON, Wis. (AP) — As the longest-serving speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, Republican Robin Vos has led efforts to restrict abortion, weaken unions, expand gun rights and oppose COVID-19 mandates. However, he faces a major challenger who claims he is not conservative enough.
The challenger’s argument: Vos must do more to address former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.
Primary challengers like the one facing Voss next Tuesday are successfully targeting incumbent state lawmakers across the country, and Republicans are bearing the brunt of it.
With more than half of state legislative primaries completed, Republican incumbents are losing nearly twice as much this year as the average over the past decade, according to data compiled for The Associated Press by the election-tracking organization Ballotpedia. The primary loss rate for Democratic lawmakers is similar to previous elections.
Republican losses continued to mount on Tuesday as Trump-backed candidates ousted incumbent state senators in Arizona and Michigan and a conservative challenger defeated Missouri’s assistant Senate majority leader. Although not technically a sitting president, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers also lost his bid for the state Senate after being criticized for refusing to help Trump in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In many cases, Republican lawmakers have been defeated by challengers who portray themselves as more conservative on election integrity, transgender policies, school education and other hot-button issues.
“We have a far-right faction that is very unhappy with what is happening on the left. So if you’re not a rabid fanatic who just pushes every button, then you’re going to have a problem,” said Arkansas state representative Craig Christiansen, who lost the GOP primary earlier this year.
Although Christiansen is considered “very conservative,” he attracted multiple challengers and failed to advance to a runoff. It came after he voted against Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of legislation that would have made Arkansas the first state to ban gender-affirming treatments for those under 18. Christiansen said he considers the legislation unconstitutional because it lacks an exception for youth who are already undergoing such treatment.
Voss, who has been speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly since 2013, has come under fire for not pursuing a resolution that would deny Democrat Joe Biden victory in the state. Trump endorsed Republican challenger Adam Steen, saying “Voss refused to do anything to fix the mistakes that were made” in the 2020 election.
Under pressure from Trump, Vos hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman last year to investigate the election. Gableman said decertifying the election was a “practical impossibility.”
Steen said he decided to challenge Vos because he failed to pass legislation banning absentee ballots before the 2020 election and did not push for tougher consequences for voter fraud, among other things.
“Conservatism in general is lethargic,” Steen said. “We lack vision and I think that vision is coming back.”
Voss said Steen was running on hyperbole. He said Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, represents the real obstacle to conservatives. Evers, for example, vetoed Republican bills that would have made absentee voting more difficult.
“If we don’t get a Republican governor, (Steen) is going to be less successful than I am,” Voss said.
Voss is one of nine Wisconsin GOP lawmakers facing a primary. Although the challengers face an uphill battle, they could push the already conservative Legislature further to the right if they score a few victories. This would mark a significant change in a state that plays a crucial role in national elections.
Twenty-seven states held legislative primaries or conventions before Tuesday. In them, at least 110 Republicans and 33 Democrats were defeated. The Republican loss rate of 7.1% far exceeded the Democratic rate of 2.8%. It also significantly exceeded the average GOP incumbent loss rate of 3.6% over the previous decade in those states, as well as the 4.4% Republican loss rate in those states during the last redistricting election cycle in 2012
Idaho voters led the way in ousting Republicans, defeating 18 GOP lawmakers — or 30 percent of those seeking re-election — even as they elected GOP Gov. Brad Little over a Trump-backed challenger who said it wasn’t enough conservative. The losers included three lawmakers representing Kootenay County in northern Idaho, where a local Republican committee recommended conservative challengers against some incumbents after a lengthy vetting process.
“People have had it and they’re ready to get up and vote,” said Brent Regan, chairman of the Kootenay County Central Republican Committee.
In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds backed the primary opponents of four GOP members who did not support her plan to provide taxpayer-funded scholarships for students to attend private schools. All four incumbents lost, including House Education Committee Chairman Dustin Hite.
Even in some Democratic-dominated states, Republican primary voters have ousted incumbents deemed insufficiently conservative.
Illinois state Rep. David Welter, one of nine Republican lawmakers kicked out of the chamber in February for flouting mask-wearing COVID-19 protocols, lost his June primary to a challenger who claimed Welter wasn’t Republican enough. Challenger Jed Davis criticized Welter’s votes on the Equal Rights Amendment and the construction bill containing, among other things, a gas tax increase.
Davis also mocked Welter’s ties to U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who became a GOP exile after voting to impeach Trump and serving on the Democratic-led House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. .vs the US Capitol. Welter once worked for Kinzinger’s campaign and has received $32,500 in donations since 2021 from Kinzinger-related committees.
“People have labeled me as more of a moderate,” Welter said. “Now I’m going to be replaced by someone who is really, really far right.”
Welter believes redistricting after the 2020 census also played a role in his defeat by displacing the voters he represents.
In states where partisan officials controlled redistricting, such as Illinois, the maps adopted for the 2022 election often contained “more and more extreme partisan gerrymanders,” according to a recent analysis by political scientists and data experts.
When legislative districts lean further to the right or left, incumbents are more likely to face challengers and candidates who take more extreme positions are more likely to win, according to an analysis in a forthcoming book by the University of St. Lewis Stephen Rogers.
Wisconsin’s state legislative districts have had some of the largest pro-Republican tilts of any state over the past decade and saw only minor changes before this year’s election.
Most of the contenders there are likely to lose, said political scientist Anthony Chergosky of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. But they could still make their mark by forcing incumbents to shift further to the right to please the GOP primary voting base.
“We’re just going through a real power struggle within the Republican Party right now,” he said. “President Trump is really showing muscle by targeting activists in the party against people like Robin Voss. Anyone in power in the Republican Party is a target.
___
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
___
Follow AP for complete midterm coverage at and on Twitter at
Add Comment