Rich businessman Tim Michels, who had the backing of former president Donald Trump, won the Republican primary for governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday. He will now take on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in a race that could have a major impact on the outcome of the key election.
Rebecca Kleefisch, a former lieutenant governor who had the support of establishment Republicans like ex-Gov. Scott Walker and former Vice President Mike Pence lost to Michels.
Michels pledged in his victory speech to concentrate on the economy and jobs, and he claimed he would defend those who “have been forgotten by the Democratic Party, which only wants to pay attention to social problems.
The well-being of Wisconsin’s hard-working citizens is Michels’ first goal as governor, he declared.
The Michels campaign characterized him as “the most radical and controversial contender possible, one that will tell Donald Trump anything to keep his endorsement.””
Trump has promoted this fabrication to reverse his loss to Joe Biden, and Kleefisch and Michels also made bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
According to federal, state, and Trump’s own attorney general, there is no solid proof that the election was rigged. Courts, including those presided over by judges Trump chose, flatly rejected the former president’s accusations of fraud.
Decertifying the 2020 contest results was not a top priority, according to Michels, but he did promise that “everything will be on the table.” He also advocates abolishing the Wisconsin elections’ bipartisan panel and other electoral reforms.
The governor’s race was the most recent front in Trump and Pence’s proxy battles. The former allies have supported rival candidates in other swing states as they try to sway the GOP in various directions.
After his preferred candidates won last week in the highly watched races for governor and senator in Arizona, the outcomes on Tuesday increased Trump’s total number of victories.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who backed Trump’s second impeachment, conceded a loss in her Washington state congressional seat when a GOP rival backed by the outgoing president caught up to her in late vote tallies.
Additionally, Rep. Liz Cheney, who supported the impeachment of President Trump and serves as the vice chair of the House committee looking into his involvement on January 6, 2021, Capitol rebellion, has a difficult primary challenge on the ballot for next Tuesday.
These events served as fresh reminders of the former president’s continued influence over the GOP, along with the Republican Party’s outpouring of support after the FBI searched Trump’s Florida estate on Monday.
Back in Wisconsin, Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes won the Democratic primary to challenge Sen. Ron Johnson, a vocal Trump supporter who is a Republican.
The contest is one of the last to be decided before the general election in November when control of the Senate’s current 50-50 split is at stake. Democrats consider Wisconsin as one of their best chances to flip a seat.
State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the most prominent Republican in Wisconsin, defeated a Trump-backed rival.
Following Vos’ defiance of the former president’s attempt to decertify the 2020 results, Trump endorsed Adam Steen. Vos argued that his victory proved “you don’t have to be a lapdog to everything Donald Trump says”
Beyond Wisconsin, which is almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats and where 2022 will be viewed as a bellwether for the 2024 presidential election, Tuesday’s results have significant ramifications.
The governor chosen this fall will hold office for the presidential election and will have the power to approve or reject amendments to election laws that the Republican-controlled Legislature passes.
Decisions on everything from abortion to taxes and education may be influenced by the next governor and senator of the United States.
A few percentage points will, by definition, decide every contest in Wisconsin since it is a 50-50 state, according to former Democratic governor Jim Doyle. And those few percentage points in Wisconsin “may very well determine the direction of the country in the years to come.”
Elsewhere In Connecticut, long the bastion of the Republican establishment, a Trump-backed candidate won the party’s Senate primary on Tuesday.
After defeating former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, who was backed by the state party, Leora Levy, a member of the Republican National Committee and the recipient of Trump’s endorsement last week, will take on two-term Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Becca Balint, a woman, won the Democratic nomination for the state’s lone House seat in Vermont, the only state that has never had a woman in its congressional delegation.
She is considered to be the favourite in the contest to succeed Rep. Peter Welch, who earned the Democratic primary for the Senate seat long held by retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Additionally, the state GOP backed COVID-19 vaccine sceptic Dr Scott Jensen as their candidate to take against Gov. Tim Walz in Minnesota.
However, the Wisconsin contests received the greatest attention because Trump has continued to exert pressure there to void Biden’s 2020 victory.
Nearly 21,000 votes separated Biden from Trump in the state, which Trump had won by a razor-thin margin four years earlier.
A nonpartisan audit, a review by a conservative law firm, two partial recounts, and numerous lawsuits have all supported the 2020 result.
As the sole candidate who will safeguard democracy, Evers has made voting and elections a central theme of his own campaign, warning voters that “we are that close to not having our vote count in the state of Wisconsin.”
Overturning the 2020 election results was not a priority, according to Michels and Kleefisch. However, they said that they would abolish the bipartisan commission that oversees Wisconsin elections and that they would support bans on voters having a proxy submit their absentee ballots as well as on polling places other than staffed clerk offices.
Michels has bragged about his efforts to expand his family’s business while co-owning Wisconsin’s largest construction firm.
He was defeated by Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in the 2004 Senate race, and he has contributed significantly to Republican candidates.
Michels was hailed by Trump as an “amazing success story” at a rally on Friday. As a representative of the “failed establishment,” he attacked Vos in addition to Kleefisch. He advised his followers that Michels was the superior candidate to defeat Evers.
We will have honest elections here in Wisconsin, Michels promised. As well as promising to restore “peace and order” to Wisconsin, criticizing Evers’ management of the state’s schools, and attributing the price hike to Biden.
Tim Ramthun, a Republican state representative, also made an unlikely run for governor.
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The battle is currently being waged against Tony Evers and the leftists, according to Kleefisch, who declared in her acceptance speech, “They want to destroy our way of life.”
While portraying Johnson as “self-serving” and “an out-of-touch politician” who only cares about special interests and affluent donors,” Barnes stressed his middle-class origins and history in his victory address in Milwaukee.
If elected, Barnes would become Wisconsin’s first Black senator and declared, “It is time for a change, everybody.” It’s time for us to have a representative that understands our situation.
Barnes was described by Johnson as the Democrats’ “most radical left candidate.”
This is a battle between freedom and wealth and radical left socialism, he declared.
From Chicago, Burnett filed a report. From Thiensville, Wisconsin, reporter Gretchen Ehlke contributed.
