Work begins at state GOP convention
Party endorsement, votes on hot-button issues on tap
MADISON – Wisconsin Republicans will vote this weekend on whether to urge lawmakers to require counting ballots by hand, implement the death penalty for convicted killers of police officers and ban puberty blockers used by transgender children.
The proposals, part of a slate of more than two dozen, will be taken up by hundreds of delegates scheduled to meet in Middleton for the annual Republican Party of Wisconsin convention — an event that could potentially become chaotic as four candidates for governor vie for an endorsement from the party that members from at least 20 county GOP organizations don’t want to give to anyone in 2022.
Republicans in this battleground state are generally distrustful of the outcome of the last presidential election and energized to vote in this year’s midterms, according to recent polling by the Marquette University Law School.
But they’re also torn over how best to navigate a year that could return their party to power in the state’s highest offices and re-elect U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson as national political headwinds remain in the GOP’s favor.
Delegates will debate whether the party should endorse candidates in statewide races, a process of unfair anointment to some, and whether to back policies that push the party further right. Party leaders are expecting more Republicans to attend this year’s convention than any convention over the last decade.
“This year’s expected attendance at the State Convention is a testament to the historic energy among our grassroots activists this election cycle,” Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement.
The delegates will vote to approve the proposed resolutions, making the ideas official party priorities and signaling to voters what Republican candidates
might push for if elected.
Two proposals would put pressure on Republican lawmakers who control the state Legislature to pass bills that would require all ballots to be counted by hand in each election, and all of them to be counted on Election Day. If enacted, statewide election results might not be known for days.
In Milwaukee, for example, the task of hand-counting all ballots in one day could require hiring more staff for Election Day.
In November 2020, more than 247,000 ballots were cast and counted by machines. Party members are also calling for dissolving the state elections agency and requiring primary voters to register as a Democrat or Republican, among other election-related proposals. Voters in Wisconsin currently are not asked to declare a party affiliation on their registrations and are able to vote in either party’s primary elections (but not both). Other policies up for consideration would bar transgender people from using facilities, housing or participating in sports associated with the gender with which they identify. One resolution also calls for allowing teenagers who used puberty blockers to transition their gender to sue their parents and doctors for facilitating the process.
Whether to support the death penalty for convicted killers of police officers is also up for a vote Saturday.
The focus of Saturday’s convention will be the Republican primary race for governor between Rebecca Kleefisch, Tim Michels, Kevin Nicholson and Tim Ramthun and whether enough convention delegates will agree and vote to endorse one of the four candidates. A candidate needs 60% of the vote to win an endorsement.
A large swath of the party’s base is refusing to endorse anyone at all, seeing the process to bestow a blessing from the state party as a losing strategy.
“The goal of convention politics has
“This year’s expected attendance at the State Convention is a testament to the historic energy among our grassroots activists this election cycle.” Mark Jefferson Executive director of Republican Party of Wisconsin
always been to manipulate the situation in back rooms in order to get the result you want,” Nicholson said on WTAQ Thursday about his opposition to the party’s endorsement process.
“I’m going to make the case this is silliness and in a world where we’re worried about election transparency and accountability, and making sure every vote counts, there’s no way ... that we should be basically assigning the decision to a convention that’s happening in Madison.”
Nicholson has urged county party members to oppose the process, blaming it for Republican losses in 11 statewide races in recent years. But he also asked party leaders to put his name on the ballot delegates will use to choose their preferred candidate for governor.
A “no endorsement” option also is on the ballot, making it possible none of the four candidates for governor leave the convention with an endorsement.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said the candidates are backing policies to appeal to former President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed he won Wisconsin in 2020 but was robbed of the victory by widespread voter fraud.
“The GOP’s gruesome foursome — Rebecca Kleefisch, Tim Michels, Kevin Nicholson, and Tim Ramthun — will push each other further to the extremes of every issue,” he said in a statement.
“Whether it is disenfranchising voters through lies regarding the 2020 election or advocating for a total ban on abortion, these candidates have said it all in order to pander to the fringe base and Donald Trump.”