The Republican gubernatorial nominee in Wisconsin had a bold and alarming promise for voters at a campaign stop this week: if he’s elected, he said, Wisconsin would never be under Democratic control ever again.
“Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor,” gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels said to supporters on Monday.
Michels, who came under fire for calling for violence against journalists earlier this election cycle, is an executive of a major construction and energy corporation, the Michels Corporation. He has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and has repeatedly spread Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, despite there being no evidence to back this claim.
A recording of Michels’s statement was shared by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic-aligned Super PAC, on Twitter. Michels “said the quiet part out loud,” the group wrote, adding, “Democracy is on the line in Wisconsin. Michels must be stopped.”
If Michels’s past statements are any indication, he is serious about his pledge. He has said that he would be open to signing a bill decertifying the results of the 2020 election in his state — results that he has publicly questioned — and won’t commit to saying whether or not he would certify the result of the 2024 election if the Republican candidate loses.
Michels has also pledged to replace Wisconsin’s state elections commission, which is the agency tasked with running elections in the state, and has not specified how he would run elections in the state in the future.
If elected, Michels will indeed have sway over election results. He could simply refuse to certify election results if they don’t go his way — and though there are checks to his power in place, like election officials at other levels or the courts, he could pressure the legislature to change election laws to give partisan officials more power.
Such a move in any state— to ignore the will of voters at the whim of far right officials — could be the end of democracy as we know it.
The pledge to cement one-party rule in the state is one of the clearest statements that a mainstream Republican candidate has made in support of fascism in this election cycle.
Republicans have made their alliance to fascism clear in other ways, however. They have shown that they are willing to resort to intimidation and violence over election results they’re unsatisfied with, and are working across the country to install operatives at every level, from the grassroots to the White House, to ensure Republicans take office regardless of the will of voters.
Trump’s Big Lie about voter fraud has taken over the party, with GOP candidates for federal or state office in every state in the U.S. doubting the result of the 2020 election. It is not a detriment to candidates to blatantly deny the will of voters; in fact, the strategy appears to be a boon to candidates, who use election denial to get Trump’s endorsement. Refusing to embrace the lie, on the other hand, has proved a major liability for Republicans.
As such, despite Michels’s alarming far right views, he is in a dead heat with his Democratic opponent Tony Evers, according to polls aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.
Evers has criticized Michels for his remark. “Folks, we’ve known this for awhile — Tim Michels is a danger to our democracy,” Evers wrote on Twitter. “When you head to the polls on Election Day, remember that we’re fighting to protect our democracy, voting rights, and free, fair, and secure elections.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy