Ron Johnson Opposes Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections
But GOP senator backs new limits on absentee voting, proof of citizenship.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson speaks at the RNC on Monday, July 15, 2024, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Tuesday he doesn’t agree with President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to nationalize elections, but he voiced support for new limits on voting, including requiring proof of citizenship and scaling back absentee ballots.
Johnson’s comments during a Tuesday telephone town hall with constituents, came a day after Trump called for the Republican Party to “take over” and “nationalize” election administration in 15 states, which the president didn’t name.
When asked if he agrees, Johnson said “I do not want to see us nationalizing elections.”“I do believe it’s fitting and proper to set some basic standards for federal elections like, only citizens can vote in federal elections,” said Johnson.
The third-term Republican is a staunch Trump supporter and championed Republicans’ SAVE Act legislation currently before the U.S. House of Representatives. It would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in future elections via documents like a U.S. passport, birth certificate or certificates of citizenship issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
Voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, oppose the SAVE Act, calling it “a dangerous step toward voter suppression” because requiring proof of citizenship could block eligible voters from casting ballots.
Johnson said he’d like to see other election changes, too. He said the nation has “gone way too far in terms of early voting.”
“I think we need to tighten up the requirements for absentee voting,” Johnson said. “I’m opposed to mail in register or mail in balloting.’Johnson claimed half the population didn’t believe presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 were “legitimate.”
Johnson says ‘optics are not looking good’ following fatal shootings by federal immigration agents
Several callers during Johnson’s town hall criticized the killings of two Minnesota residents in recent weeks by federal immigration agents during a surge in Minneapolis ordered by the Trump administration.
One caller, Jeff from Chippewa Falls, identified himself as a retired law enforcement officer, telling Johnson local police wouldn’t condone “pushing people down, getting out and pointing guns at people, even if they think they’re a suspect.”“So, I think there needs to be a code of conduct for ICE,” he told Johnson. “The optics of what people are seeing is just people being brutalized by law enforcement and gives law enforcement as a whole a black eye.”
Johnson agreed that “the optics are not looking good.”
“But understand how many of the thousands of law enforcement actions that have taken place, there haven’t been those kinds of, you know, filmed abuses,” Johnson said.
Johnson said sometimes when law enforcement is arresting “some pretty bad people” who resist, “if it was filmed, it wouldn’t look pretty.”“Even though there may have been some excesses, I’m not going to say there haven’t been, but I think it’s being blown out of proportion in terms of the magnitude of what ICE is trying to accomplish,” said Johnson.
As for the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota, Johnson said people should give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt, “but a full investigation should be undertaken.”
Johnson asks ‘what’s the point’ of bringing a gun to peaceful protest?
In the wake of Pretti’s killing, Trump and members of his administration have made gun rights advocates uneasy by claiming that people can’t bring firearms to protests. Seconds before he was shot, agents removed a concealed handgun from Pretti, which he was licensed to carry in Minnesota.
On Monday, Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, threatened to arrest anyone who enters the capital with a gun, whether or not they’re licensed to carry in other states.
A caller named Timothy in Hudson asked Johnson where he stands. The senator said he’s a “strong defender of Second Amendment rights” and said different states have different laws on how to carry guns.“I would recommend, if you’re going to a peaceful protest, personally, I wouldn’t carry a gun,” said Johnson. “What’s the point?”
One of the last questions Johnson fielded came from a woman who asked whether he’d run for reelection. Johnson, who ran for a third term in the Senate in 2022 after previously stating he’d step away after two, said “you never say never.” “But again, I’ve got three years left in this term,” said Johnson.
Wisconsin US Sen. Ron Johnson opposes Trump’s call for Republicans to ‘take over’ elections was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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Wow…he is pulling his head out of Trumps…..er, I mean…out of the sand just a little. But he has a long way to go. He is still protecting those people on the Epstein list by remaining silent though. What does Jane and Jenna think of his continued silence? I mean, its way past his calling it a “bizarre situation” almost a year ago
This whole thing was designed to be a bait headline so pols like FRJ could release a statement to “have it both ways”; let’s parse:
“doesn’t agree with President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to nationalize elections, but he voiced support for new limits on voting, including requiring proof of citizenship and scaling back absentee ballots.”
He can very quickly back off from the big scary ‘nationalize’ word at the start — which isn’t even “possible” — and still back every other restrictive voting change with a nice neat redirection of ” but it’s not *that*”.
So he gets free press, doesn’t have to change a single actual position and comes out looking like a hero when opposing Trump is gaining favor.
So why isn’t the headline highlighting what is actually going on in the Senate, i.e., the SAVE Act, and that Johnson is supporting it? I understand the SAVE Act requires a women who got married to get an updated birth certificate to reflect her new last name if it changed. If you are an older person in the South you might not have ever been given the proper documents to meet these new voting eligibility requirements. Election workers could go to prison for up to 5 years if they help to register somebody without the correct documents, even if the registered voter is a citizen. It promotes voter purges, makes online registration difficult, prohibits universal mail in voting, …articles like this kind of make me sick. When they write “GOP senator backs new limits on absentee voting, proof of citizenship” they really minimize what’s going on here with the Republican Party.
he still says the wrong things even when he’s trying say the right things. women should have new birth certificates reflecting their married name>????? who does her really think is voting and what a colossal insult to all the citizens that work the polls. his constituents in those red counties he represents as he doesn’t represent milwaukee county. please go and go soon.
Calling for new legislation that would prohibit non-citizens from voting in federal elections is absurd since that law already exists. Again, Republicans creating a fix for a non-issue to give uninformed people something to rally around.
I agree completely with Duane’s comments. I urge you to read the entire bill. You can find it here:
https://democrats-cha.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-cha.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/SAVE%20Act%20Section-by-Section_BRANDED.pdf
When you add the insidious hidden details of this bill to Frump’s unleashing of gestapo-like forces within Blue cities in Blue and Purple states, along with his call for “nationalizing” elections in 15 states, commandeering 2020 presidential ballots from a county in Georgia, continually insisting that he won in 2020, and the lunatic rantings from yesterday from none other than Steve Bannon, all Americans should be outraged. Frump and his reTrumplican cronies are aiming to rig all future elections with their attempts to minimize voter turnout with the details of the SAVE Act, and if that doesn’t work Bannon is okay with the government using the threat of guns and tear gas provided by armed US troops to intimidate voters. Here is what that moron suggested yesterday:
Steve Bannon, the chief strategist during the president’s first term has a grim vision for the 2026 midterm elections, and it involves armed federal agents.
‘You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November,’ Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Tuesday.
“We’re not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again,” Bannon added. “And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”
“President Trump has to nationalize the election. You’ve got to put not just, I think, ICE, you’ve got to call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne [Divisions] on the Insurrection Act,” he told his listeners. “You’ve got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, people … actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election.”
For a second I thought Ron Johnson might be coming to his senses and following the Constitution–but no, he still believes the notorious lies of Trump and his Gestapo. –and stop trying to make people jump through unnecessary hoops to vote. We have proven dozens and dozens of times over the years that there is no problem with our current system. Let seniors, military and the disabled vote early if they need to–and count those votes!
This traitor cannot be voted out soon enough.
I’d wish a whole lot of prison time too but I won’t count my blessings.