GOP seeking power over elections in Wisconsin

MADISON, WIS. » Wisconsin’s secretary of state has no role in elections, but that could change if Republicans are able to flip the seat this year and pass a law that would empower the office with far more responsibilities.

All three GOP candidates competing for the nomination in Tuesday’s primary support the shift and echo former President Donald Trump’s false claims that fraud cost him the 2020 election.

If successful, the move would be a bold attempt to shift power to an office Republicans hope to control going into the 2024 presidential election and would represent a reversal from just six years ago when Republicans established the Wisconsin Elections Commission with bipartisan support. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes in the presidential race.

“This is not about policy,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who heads the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. “It’s about election outcomes and only election outcomes.”

Once an under-the-radar contest overshadowed by campaigns for governor and state attorney general, races for secretary of state are drawing tremendous interest and money this year, driven largely by the 2020 election, when voting systems and processes came under attack by Trump and his supporters. There is no evidence of widespread fraud or manipulation of voting systems occurring in the 2020 election.

There are also primaries Tuesday in secretary of state races in Minnesota, Connecticut and Vermont. In Minnesota, the leading Republican candidate has called the 2020 election “rigged” and has faced criticism for a video attacking three prominent Jewish Democrats, including the current secretary of state, Democrat Steve Simon, who is seeking reelection.

Although the stakes are high, the Wisconsin primary for secretary of state has been mostly quiet. The incumbent, Democrat Doug La Follette, has barely been campaigning. In June, the 81-year-old, who was first elected to the position in 1974, opted to take a twoweek trip to Africa.

La Follette has raised about $21,000, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. That’s not unusual because the office’s only duties are to sit on a state timber board and to verify certain travel documents.

La Follette has said he decided to run again to stop Republicans from meddling with elections, citing Trump’s call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, after the 2020 election asking him to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s win in the state. La Follette’s primary opponent, Dane County Democratic Party Executive Board Chair Alexia Sabor, has raised about $24,000.