Vos’ Primary Challenger Running Write-In Campaign
Adam Steen narrowly lost the primary election to Robin Vos for state Assembly.
Adam Steen. Photo courtesy of the Steen campaign.
After losing to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in the August primary election, Republican Adam Steen has announced he will run as a write-in candidate in November.
Steen addressed a crowd of supporters in Burlington on Thursday, in which he said “the future of our country is at stake.”
Just a week before the August primary, Steen was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. That propelled him from political obscurity into the spotlight.
The endorsement and an ongoing feud between Vos and Trump, led to one of the Speaker’s closest elections yet for the the 63rd Assembly District seat. Vos defeated Steen on Aug. 9 by a narrow margin of just 260 votes. Vos has routinely won reelection in the heavily-Republican district by 20 points or more, and hasn’t faced a primary challenger in recent years.
In a statement following Steen’s announcement, Vos reiterated that voters had already made their choice.
“Now that voters have rejected him, he apparently can’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Vos said in a written statement. “He seems intent on re-litigating the primary election he lost, just like he wants to do with the 2020 election.”
Much of the primary campaign focused on demands from Trump and his allies to decertify the 2020 election — something election experts say is legally impossible. Vos has been on the receiving end of intense blowback for rejecting calls to overturn the 2020 election.
Still, Vos hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to lead an investigation into the 2020 election. His investigation has not provided any evidence of widespread fraud and has been caught up in a series of legal challenges. Several other audits have found no evidence of wrongdoing in the election, in which President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.
Tension between Vos and Gableman have grown over the last several months, with the former justice endorsing Steen one day before the primary election. Days later, Vos fired Gableman and closed the election investigation altogether.
Steen slammed Vos for “discrediting” Gableman and lauded his work that culminated in a 136-page final report the Office of the Special Counsel released in early March.
The August primary was Steen’s second run for office. In 2018, he came in fourth in the Republican primary for the First Congressional District, with just 10 percent of the vote.
Election wins by write-in candidates are incredibly rare, but Steen seemed hopeful Thursday.
“This is not the end, this is just the beginning, isn’t it?” he said. “We will continue to fight. And we will continue to bring justice and free and fair elections to the great state of Wisconsin.”
Even with Steen’s announcement, Vos will not face a named candidate on the November ballot. There is also no Democratic challenger to represent the Racine County district.
Listen to the WPR report here.
Vos challenger Steen announces write-in campaign for state Assembly was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Any possible way Democrats can get a candidate on the ballot here?
This shows the folly of not having a candidate for every election, everywhere, every time. Opportunities don’t come along often and Democrats need to be sure they will never miss one.
@mkeumkenews09
Sachin Chheda, corrupt war monger baby killer George Soros, and his war criminal employee Ben Wikler are in charge of the Wisconsin Democratic Party… They tried to oust Democratic Party Secretary of State Doug La Follette in last week’s primary and replace him with a member of their corrupt inner circle.
You’ll have to call George Soros if you want to lodge a complaint about the lack of a Democratic challenger to Vos in the general election.