Trump Effort Seeks to Oust Robin Vos
In robocall for write-in candidate Adam Steen in Assembly race, Trump calls Vos a 'horrendous RINO.'
Robin Vos and Donald Trump.
Former President Donald Trump is again attempting to oust Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) from his seat in the Legislature.
In the days before the Nov. 8 midterm election, Trump recorded a robocall on behalf of Adam Steen in which Trump calls Vos a “horrendous RINO,” (the acronym stands for Republican In Name Only). Steen, who lost to Vos in a tightly contested primary race in August, is mounting a write-in campaign against the speaker.
Steen’s campaign has largely focused on disproven claims of election fraud and calls to restore “election integrity.” Steen’s acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in the face of Vos’ refusal to give in to Republican demands to decertify Wisconsin’s 2020 results, led Trump to attempt to tip the scales in the primary race by endorsing Steen.
Multiple recounts, lawsuits, audits and investigations have affirmed that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Vos, the longest serving speaker in state history, has been leading the Assembly since 2013. His historically tight grip on the reins of the Republican caucus has loosened in recent years as the farthest right-wing members of the body have advocated for more extreme responses to their election conspiracies.
Ahead of the August primary, Trump, Steen and former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman (who had been leading a widely criticized review of the 2020 election) appeared at a rally together to push for Vos’ defeat.
After Vos won by less than 300 votes, Steen continued campaigning. In an electoral oddity, Burlington Alder Joel Jacobsen, a Democrat, also launched his own write-in campaign after Democrats failed to run anyone against Vos. Jacobsen challenged Vos in the previous two elections but failed to come close to unseating him.
Trump calls Vos ‘horrendous RINO’ in recorded robocall on behalf of write-in challenger Steen was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
