Facing little opposition, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), an established election denier who voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in two key states, is expected to easily secure the Republican nomination for governor in Wisconsin during Tuesday’s primary election.
Tiffany is one of many election deniers on the ballot running as a Republican in the primaries this year. After receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement earlier this year, he is expected to win the nomination in the Wisconsin primary.
“I endorsed Tom for Congress early and strong, and he won, BIG. Likewise, he has always been at my side. A very successful Businessman, Family Farmer, and State Legislator, prior to becoming a distinguished United States Congressman, Tom is a Proven Leader who has dedicated his life to serving his Community,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in January.
“Tom Tiffany has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Wisconsin — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” he added.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced last July that he would not be seeking a third term in office, creating an open race for governor in Wisconsin for the first time since 2010.
If Tiffany wins the Republican nomination on Tuesday, he will face off against one of the four Democrats running in the Democratic primary: frontrunner and state Rep. Francesca Hong, who is a democratic socialist; David Crowley, a Milwaukee County executive who has Evers’ support, who dropped out of the race but then came back after another Dem dropped out; state Sen. Kelda Roys; and Joel Brennan, a former Cabinet secretary in Evers’ administration.
Tiffany has a long history of election denialism.
In January 2021, citing debunked claims of voter fraud, Tiffany voted against certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election in both Arizona and Pennsylvania and he vowed to do the same for Wisconsin, but that vote was interrupted by Trump supporters storming the Capitol. “Those states really have a lot of fixing to do with their election systems, and so I objected to those states,” Tiffany has said of his decision.
He was one of the Republican members of Congress in 2020 who signed onto a lawsuit filed by Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton (now a Texas Republican Senate candidate) in an attempt to throw out Wisconsin’s presidential election votes and have the state’s Republican state legislature decide the election. It was one of many failed attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn election results in key states that Trump claimed were rampant with election fraud simply because he lost.
Tiffany’s election denial days are not behind him either. He recently expressed his support for the FBI’s investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin.
“Whatever they’re searching for, the investigation should be allowed to continue and let’s find out what happened there,” Tiffany told reporters in May of this year. “If there’s improprieties that happened then there should be charges filed. If not, then you let the investigation cease.”
Tiffany has also, even in recent months, dodged questions about who won the 2020 election. When asked who won the 2020 election in May, he never answered the question, but instead told reporters “the problem with the 2020 election was the improprieties that happened.”
Doesn’t “Tom Tiffany” sound like a Trump alias?
In an alternate version of reality, Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and “John Barron” live out their lives as a grouchy expat couple in Costa Rica, and we’d all be the better for it.