Wisconsin’s longtime Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, won reelection in a tight race Tuesday evening against Adam Steen, a GOP challenger backed by former President Donald Trump for the state’s 63rd Assembly District.
Vos, who had hired a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to look into the 2020 election in an inquiry facing controversies of its own, said the former president asked him in July to overturn President Joe Biden‘s 2020 victory in the state, though Vos maintained that decertification of the election results would be unconstitutional. Trump then endorsed Steen on Aug. 2 following Vos’s rejection, for which the former president labeled him a RINO, a pejorative for “Republican in Name Only,” among other tactics to raise awareness of Steen’s campaign.
TRUMP ENDORSES CHALLENGER TO TOP WISCONSIN LAWMAKER OPPOSED TO DECERTIFYING 2020 ELECTION
Steen was narrowly outperforming Vos early in the night before the incumbent came out ahead after 10 p.m. CST and declared victory. Later, several news outlets called the race for Vos.
During a victory speech Tuesday night, Vos slammed former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired by him to probe the 2020 election and has continued to renew his contract despite the review not revealing evidence of significant fraud or new details related to the election not previously known.
“Mike Gableman is an embarrassment to this state,” Vos said, according to a reporter from the Journal Times.
Vos also hinted that the GOP Assembly caucus would be meeting soon to consider whether Gableman should continue his investigation into the 2020 election, according to another reporter attending the speech.
While Vos strongly opposed Trump’s request, he has underscored his belief that “things happened in the 2020 election that need to be corrected,” noting the state’s Republican-controlled legislature “passed more than a dozen bills that would address a lot of the issues that we saw.”
“My opponent is singularly focused on winning this primary so he can overturn the 2020 election,” Vos said in a statement to Wisconsin Public Radio.
As an underfunded candidate who has stated his conservative values, including his anti-abortion stance, Steen previously ran in the Republican congressional primary in 2018, finishing in fourth place for the state’s 1st Congressional District to replace retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump campaigned for Steen at a rally in Waukesha over the weekend, railing against Vos for his refusal to decertify the election results in favor of Biden.
“Adam Steen is running to defeat your RINO speaker of the House, Robin Vos,” Trump said.
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Steen has said he would aim to retract the state’s 10 Electoral College votes from the 2020 race, which is legally impossible, as well as enact further measures to alter the state’s voting laws.
With the absence of a Democratic challenger in November, Vos, a 17-year incumbent, will retain his seat in power.
