Wisconsin Republicans nominated Tim Michels as the party’s 2022 candidate for governor Tuesday night, choosing the construction company owner who has never held political office over former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch to run against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November.
In a stunning near-upset, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) squeaked to a reelection victory for his Assembly seat over primary challenger Adam Steen.
“Thanks to you, we took on the Madison establishment and won,” Michels told his supporters when he claimed victory.
Michels spent nearly $8 million of his own money in the first half of 2022 on his campaign after entering the race in April, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
In her concession speech, Kleefisch swiftly appealed for GOP unity, urging her supporters to “stay in the fight” and pivoting to the November general election. “Because the fight now is truly against Tony Evers and the liberals who want to take away our way of life,” she said.
In the primary for lieutenant governor, the GOP nominated State Sen. Roger Roth to be Michels’ running mate. Roth, an Appleton Republican, led a field that included Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point).
As of late Tuesday evening, the Republican primary for state attorney general remained too close to call. Fond du Lac District Attorney Eric Toney was leading former State Rep. Adam Jarchow by less than one percentage point and fewer than 3,000 votes. The winner will face Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul in November.
In one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries in the country, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes quickly put away the nomination to run for U.S. Senate. Barnes’ victory was expected after his three closest rivals dropped out in the last week of July and endorsed him. The Associated Press called the race at 8:27 p.m. with just 4.2% of the votes counted.
Barnes will run against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who easily won a primary election over challenger David Schroeder. The race has attracted national attention because Johnson is considered a vulnerable incumbent in a Senate that is currently split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.
State Rep. Sara Rodriguez will take Barnes’ place as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in November as Evers seeks a second term. Rodriguez handily won the primary, defeating Peng Her, founder and CEO of the Hmong Institute, who served on Evers’ 2018 transition team.
Longtime Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette easily overcame a primary challenger, Alexia Sabor, the Dane County Democratic Party chair. And in the Republican primary for that office, State Rep. Amy Loudenbeck fended off two challengers, Jay Schroeder and Justin Schmidtka.
The secretary of state’s race is likely to come under closer scrutiny this election year than it has been for years. In Wisconsin, the office is not involved in election administration as it is in most states, but Republicans especially have suggested it should have a bigger role in the process.
In the 3rd Congressional District, State Sen. Brad Pfaff had garnered nearly twice the number of votes of his closest rival in the contest for the Democratic nomination, Rebecca Cooke, by late Tuesday night. Nearly half the ballots in the district remained to be counted, however.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Derrick Van Orden, who ran unopposed, in November, for the seat currently held by Democrat Ron Kind. Kind is retiring from the House of Representatives at the end of this year.
Also too close to call late Tuesday night was the Democratic primary for state treasurer. With 70% of ballots counted, Fitchburg Mayor Aaron Richardson had a margin of fewer than 1,000 votes over Gillian Battino, a Wausau radiologist who entered the race in February after abandoning her U.S. Senate bid. Angelito Tenorio, a West Allis alder who was the first Democrat to seek the post after incumbent Sarah Godlewski decided to forgo a second term, was in third place.
On the Republican side, John Leiber, who ran promising to focus strictly on the post’s core responsibilities of overseeing state assets, handily won over Orlando Owens, southeast regional director for the office of Sen. Ron Johnson.
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The primary challenge to Vos, who as Assembly speaker has been the most powerful Republican in a state government in which Democrats currently hold all the statewide offices, was remarkable for how close it came.
After falling behind in early counting, Vos pulled through in the 63rd Assembly District by a margin of less than 300 votes with 89% of the votes counted.
Steen campaigned against Vos as a career politician, and more specifically for his refusal to back attempts to decertify Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election — a legal impossibility — after Democrat Joe Biden won over Donald Trump.
A year ago Vos enlisted former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to conduct a partisan review of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. That review has uncovered no new information that would change the outcome of the election, but Gableman has made public appeals to Vos to pursue decertifying Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes.
In the last week the two have become increasingly estranged, with Gableman endorsing Steen and recording a robocall for the challenger in which he claimed that Vos never supported his investigation.
At his election watch party, Vos called Gableman “an embarrassment to the state” and said that the future of his investigation would be on the table at an Assembly caucus meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 16.
originally published at https%3A%2F%2Fwisconsinexaminer.com%2F2022%2F08%2F10%2Fmichels-wins-gop-nod-for-governors-race-vos-narrowly-wins-assembly-primary%2F by Erik Gunn
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