Thread by @benwikler

Today’s #Jan6Hearings are the last until July—so it’s worth highlighting today that Wisconsin’s role in the attempt to overturn our democracy wasn’t limited to Ron Johnson. It was a project that consumed most of the state’s GOP… and still does. THREAD
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

After Biden won in Wisconsin and Trump lost, the GOP refused to concede. Trump forced a recount—but just in Wisconsin’s two biggest and most diverse counties: Milwaukee and Dane. In the recount, they kept trying to toss out ballots. They failed.
apnews.com/article/electi…

Some local Republican leaders called out the Trump campaign’s attempt to disenfranchise Wisconsinites (for example, this QT). But most of the state’s GOP establishment went right along with it—and with the court challenges that followed.

https://twitter.com/RohnWBishop/status/1330153166227337217

Trump’s last ridiculous lawsuit died in the state Supreme Court (by one vote in a 4-3 decision!) just an hour before the Electoral College votes were cast. I remember, because I was one of the electors.
apnews.com/article/wisons…

But unbeknownst to me at the time, a group of Republican activists had snuck into the WI state Capitol to cast fraudulent electoral college ballots at the very same time—a key part of the national plot that we’re learning about from the Jan 6 Commission. msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/…

One of the GOP activists was the chair of the state’s Republican Party. Another was a GOP-appointed member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Others were party activists & local politicians. (We defeated one in the 4/5 elections this spring by the way.)boltsmag.org/wisconsin-elec…

How did those fake electors get into the Capitol? Apparently, the room they used was reserved by then-state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who is now a Republican member of Congress from Wisconsin’s 5th district. wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/01/27/imp…

Fast forward a few weeks, and a slew of state legislators called on Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results—including 15 Republican lawmakers from Wisconsin.
wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/01/14/the…

On January 6 itself, Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation was inside the Capitol. Outside, as the Capitol building was being stormed, one of the people watching from the grounds was @DerrickVanOrden, who had just lost a House race in WI-03.

Van Orden had used campaign cash to fly himself to Washington, D.C. so he could help “stop the steal.” He’s now on probation for attempting to carry a gun on a plane. He’s running again for Congress in WI’s 3rd District and will be on the ballot this fall. thedailybeast.com/gop-candidate-…

We’ve held @DerrickVanOrden to account for his role in the Big Lie since day one.

Incidentally, Van Orden is also a notorious Twitter troll, a self-confessed sexual harasser, and a statewide disgrace for making a 17-year-old volunteer at a public library feel threatened because he was offended by their Pride Month book display.
wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/donation…

As the 1/6 violence and bloodshed crescendoed, two Republicans from Wisconsin remained committed to voting against election certification: Scott Fitzgerald, who’d reserved the room for the fake electors, and Tom Tiffany, from WI-07.
journaltimes.com/2-wis-republic…

In the immediate aftermath of Jan 6, a few Republicans spoke out about what they’d seen. One was WI’s Mike Gallagher, who went on a national media tour. But a few weeks later, he voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment & voted against the Jan 6 Commission.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1350582939868921858

In fact, every single Wisconsin Republican in Congress voted against creating the Jan 6 commission, voted against impeaching or convicting Trump, and voted to throw Liz Cheney out of her GOP leadership role. jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

Since the insurrection, Wisconsin Republicans have been running an endless cycle of sham investigations, all dedicated to advancing the Big Lie. But they’ve had little to say about the nine Wisconsinites arrested for their actions on Jan 6.
justice.gov/usao-dc/capito…

Today, all of the Republicans running for governor in Wisconsin—Tim Michels (@michelsforgov), Rebecca Kleefisch (@RebeccaforReal), Tim Ramthun (@timothy_ramthun), and Kevin Nicholson (@KevinMNicholson)—are using the big lie to attack our democracy.

Every one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates wants to abolish the bipartisan Elections Commission that oversees elections in Wisconsin, and put Republicans in the legislature in charge.
nbc15.com/2022/05/13/wis…

Tim Michels even flipped his original position, likely in a desperate attempt to snag Trump’s endorsement.
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

Trump-endorsed, Michels refuses to say President Biden won—and even refuses to say whether he would certify Wisconsin’s 2024 presidential election result.
washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…

These hearings, and the truths that they unearth, likely won’t change the minds of those who seek to undermine our free, fair, and secure elections. But we can watch these hearings, then channel the outrage that they provoke into the energy we need to win this November.

Wisconsin, after all, every bit as much as Washington, D.C., will determine whether this moment of crisis for our democracy is merely a prologue to worse—or becomes a turning point towards something better.

By the way: if you want to help ensure that these folks don’t win in November, volunteer to help us defeat them: wisdems.org/volunteer

And chip in to support the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s work to organize and protect the vote in every corner of Wisconsin: wisdems.org/donate