Robin Vos’ Trump-endorsed opponent will run as a write-in candidate after losing GOP primary
Adam Steen, who lost the Republican primary against Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos last week and has campaigned on decertifying the 2020 presidential election, will run as a write-in candidate in November.
Steen announced his renewed effort to unseat the state's longest-serving Assembly leader in a speech to a group of supporters in Burlington on Thursday in which he claimed the "future of our country is at stake."
“I want the people to be able to choose their election representatives," said the Donald Trump-backed Steen. "I want them to know the truth about the people that are going to represent them.
“This is not just an Assembly seat," he added. "This is the direction of our country. That’s what we’re looking at today."
Vos, who drew the ire of Trump for repeatedly refusing to take the illegal and impossible step of decertifying the 2020 election, narrowly edged Steen by 260 votes in last week's GOP primary.
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Steen's challenge represents the discontent within the base of the Wisconsin GOP that had turned against Vos following the results of the presidential election — which Trump and his supporters argue could have been overturned by Vos.
Recounts, audits and court rulings have reaffirmed that Joe Biden won Wisconsin's presidential contest by more than 20,000 votes.
On Thursday, Steen touted his endorsement from Trump that came just days before the primary and claimed thousands of people were not aware of the endorsement when they voted.
He also defended former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, whom Vos fired shortly after his primary win. Vos had hired Gableman to review the 2020 election — an effort that has cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $1 million and has not produced any evidence of substantive voter fraud.
More: About 25 people attend a 'Toss Vos' event to see Robin Vos flung in effigy night before the primary
“This is not the end," Steen said Thursday. "This is just the beginning, isn’t it? We are going to stand for the people that have been marginalized and the people who have been overlooked by the lies that were told and the misrepresentations that we had to fight through."
Following Steen's write-in announcement, Vos issued a statement saying Steen can't accept defeat.
"Now that voters have rejected him, he apparently can’t take ‘no’ for an answer," Vos said. "He seems intent on re-litigating the primary election he lost, just like he wants to do with the 2020 election."
Vos will not face a named candidate on the November ballot.
Contact Lawrence Andrea at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Adam Steen to run as write-in candidate after losing to Robin Vos
