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MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – After President Donald Trump lost his candidacy for re-election, most Republicans in the Senate, his Department of Justice and the courts dismissed or challenged his baseless claims of a “stolen election” . Not Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson.
The GOP senator used his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to highlight Trump’s claims, saying millions of Americans “have real and legitimate suspicions that this election has been stolen” and are concerned about “So many irregularities here”.
This kind of loyalty to Trump has endeared Johnson to his state’s far-right base, but it could prove costly if he decides to run for a third term in 2022. As Johnson considers whether to run for office re-presenting his adherence to Trump’s anti-democracy campaign The campaign to overturn election results has already angered some mainstream Republican allies and is poised to motivate Democrats who have turned opposition to Trump to a new force in the state.
Observers note that Johnson, who walked out of the Tea Party movement more than a decade ago, has often behaved like a senator from a solidly Red state. But the November election demonstrated that Wisconsin, which Democrat Joe Biden won by less than 21,000 votes, is anything but. The fight for his seat will be among the most competitive races next year.
“I think if the election were held in a week’s time he would be in a world of suffering,” Fond du Lac County Republican Party Chairman Rohn Bishop said. Bishop slammed fellow Republicans like Johnson for picking up on allegations of illegal election activity, even though there remains support for Johnson. But he notes that Johnson risks losing moderate voters essential to win.
“It could hurt him with suburban voters. … The election was not stolen and it’s hard to convince people that they should vote for you when you try to throw away their legally cast ballots.
Johnson has long been aligned with the extremist policies and politics of Trump. He led the campaign to investigate Biden’s son Hunter and rarely broke with the White House. Still, some Republicans were surprised to see the senator give credit to Trump’s post-election plans, which included an attempt to reject the ballots of 238,000 voters in Democratic-majority areas of Milwaukee and Madison.
Johnson’s hearing on December 16 to examine unsubstantiated election fraud complaints largely perpetuated Trump’s baseless claims. And on January 6, just before the U.S. Capitol was stormed, Johnson opposed the Arizona Electoral College vote count.
The editor of the conservative Right Wisconsin website published a scathing column hours before the riot, claiming Johnson was on a ‘reckless path’ in questioning the integrity of the election and should step down and lose if he shows up again.
After the riot, Johnson did not vote to oppose. Yet the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, called on Johnson to resign for “stoking an insurgency.”
Johnson responded with a column in the newspaper calling the editorial “lopsided and uninformed.” The Sentinel Journal took the rare step of annotating its response, providing 19 footnotes with additional context, fact-checking and corrections.
The Wisconsin State Journal, the state’s second-largest newspaper, also called for Johnson’s resignation, and anti-Trump Republicans behind Project Lincoln have targeted Johnson for defeat, citing his support for electoral conspiracy theories and comparing it to the disgraced former American Wisconsin. Senator Joe McCarthy.
Johnson remains popular with the GOP base, a key factor as he considers whether to run again, said GOP strategist Brian Reisinger, who worked on Johnson’s 2016 campaign. He noted that Johnson had been able to beat opponents who hadn’t given him much of a chance to win, first against US Senator Russ Feingold in 2010 and again in a rematch in 2016.
“There are a lot of people watching Ron Johnson, and they see the political sustainability he has had over the years, despite being a walking dead man twice before,” Reisinger said.
Johnson in 2016 pledged not to run for a third term, but stepped back three years later, saying he wanted to see how the 2020 election played out. He also said he plans to run for governor in 2022.
Johnson, 65, has said in recent weeks he has yet to make a decision.
“My bias has always been (to serve) two terms and go home,” Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last month before Democrats won two second-round elections in Georgia to take majority control of the Senate. . “It continues to be my preference, but at the same time, the Senate is kind of a firewall against full Democrat control, which I think would be a very bad thing for this country.
Johnson and his spokesman Ben Voelkel declined to comment on his plans.
Republicans already have three vacant Senate seats to defend. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Rob Portman of Ohio have said they will not be running again in 2022. GOP Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who will be 89 in 2022, is also on the ballot, and two-term Missouri Republican Roy Blunt has not said if he will seek a third.
If Johnson retires, it would likely be frank on both sides.
A number of Republicans are considering a race for the Senate or Governor, depending on what Johnson does. Potential candidates for the Republican Senate include U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, former U.S. Representative Sean Duffy and Kevin Nicholson, who lost a Republican Senate primary in 2018.
The list of Democratic hopefuls includes Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, the state’s first black lieutenant governor, state treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Senator Chris Larson of Milwaukee.
Alex Lasry, senior vice president of the Milwaukee Bucks, who helped lead the successful effort to secure the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee before the coronavirus sent the event almost entirely online, is also considering a race. Lasry is the son of billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic consolidator Marc Lasry and could potentially self-finance his race.
Another potential candidate is Steven Olikara, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Millennial Action Project. Outagamie County Director Tom Nelson has already declared his candidacy.
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