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The Trump-endorsed GOP candidate for Wisconsin governor won’t commit to certifying the results of the 2024 election if he is elected. Construction executive Tim Michels has risen quickly in the Wisconsin primary polls, though he’s still trailing frontrunner former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Kleefisch lobbied Trump and failed to secure his endorsement despite traveling to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the ex-president.
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow tweeted:
"Former President Trump's preferred candidate for Wisconsin governor won't say whether he would certify the next presidential election if Trump makes another run for the White House and again loses the key battleground state of Wisconsin."https://t.co/8UOfaoOBhJ
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 22, 2022
According to Michels, Trump told him he’s the best choice to beat incumbent Wisconsin Governor Tom Evers – a Democrat. Michels claims he made no promises to Trump in exchange for the endorsement, telling Wisconsin Public Radio:
“Career politicians – they make quid pro quos. And we didn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. He didn’t ask me for anything. I didn’t promise anything. We’re just honored to have the support of the President of the United States.”
Michels means ex-president, seemingly forgetting who actually won the last election, a pretty dangerous lapse.
Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes and is a key battleground state. President Joe Biden won by a slim margin of fewer than 21,000 votes. No evidence of widespread voter fraud was discovered after a non-partisan audit, a statewide canvas, and a partial recount. But that hasn’t stopped Michels from pushing claims of fraudulent votes. He refuses to say whether President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and vows to do away with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, a bi-partisan agency consisting of three Republicans and three Democrats that was created by the GOP.
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The commission is ironically responsible for Michels being on the ballot at all, having unanimously decided in his favor when Wisconsin Democrats sought to keep him off the ballot for not properly listing his address. It’s a mistake that would get an absentee ballot rejected in Wisconsin. Attorney Jeff Mandell said, per the Wisconsin Examiner:
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“I want to point out that the argument that Mr. Michels is pressing upon this commission and I really urge the commission to reject, is that a candidate for office should be held to a lower standard than an absentee voter is held to with regard to not even to their own conduct, but to the witnesses’ conduct. That really seems inappropriate.”
The complaint was somehow dismissed.
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Current Wisconsin Governor Tom Evers condemned Republicans’ attempts to undermine the results of the 2020 election and emphasized the danger of pushing the “Big Lie.” Evers tweeted on June 3rd:
The 2020 election was free, fair, and secure, but radical Republicans, with Donald Trump’s endorsement, will continue to push the Big Lie and attack our democracy. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
— Tony Evers (@Tony4WI) June 3, 2022
The number of Trump-backed candidates still pushing unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen is truly alarming. And it should be. Democrats need to go all-in on protecting a very fragile democracy and connect with their base. Connect with those minds changing in the wake of the publicized January 6th Committee hearings, and get the apathetic people out to vote.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
