Republican state elections commissioner Dean Knudson abruptly resigns, rebuking his party's embrace of Trump's false election claims
Molly Beck
MADISON – A Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission under fire from members of his own party for refusing to entertain 2020 election distortions stunned his colleagues Wednesday by announcing his resignation from the oversight board and blasting the GOP's continued focus on former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election.
Dean Knudson, a former state lawmaker who helped design the commission in 2015, said he was leaving the commission because it has become clear "I cannot be effective in my role representing Republicans on the commission."
His announced departure pushed the commissioners to delay the election of their next chair.
"I'll put my conservative record up against anyone in the state of Wisconsin, and yet, now I've been branded a RINO," Knudson said at a meeting Wednesday, referring to an acronym that represents "Republicans In Name Only" — a nickname applied by 2020 election deniers to Republicans who acknowledge Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
"Two of my core values are to practice service above self and to display personal integrity. And to me, that integrity demands acknowledging the truth even when the truth is painful. In this case, the painful truth is that President Trump lost the election in 2020 — lost the election in Wisconsin in 2020. And the loss was not due to election fraud."
Knudson said instances of voter fraud occur in every election but not at a large scale.
"Unfortunately, his close advisers didn't have the courage to accept the truth of the election, instead believing and spreading falsehoods. And unfortunately now elected officials, appointed officials, and candidates at the highest levels in my party have refused to believe that President Trump lost. Even worse, some have peddled misinformation and perpetuated falsehoods about the 2020 election."
Knudson said he would leave the commission as soon as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who appointed Knudson in 2017, named his replacement. A spokeswoman for Vos did not answer questions about the process.
Vos has called for the resignation of the Wisconsin Elections Commission director and has claimed widespread voter fraud manipulated the outcome of the 2020 election.
In 2021, he hired former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to begin a $676,000 taxpayer-funded review of the 2020 election that has focused heavily on WEC practices and suggesting foul play without evidence.
Now, as the commission has become a symbol of baseless claims of fraud to Republicans who deny Trump's legitimate election loss, all four Republican candidates for governor want to abolish the commission altogether and most want to put its duties in a partisan office.
"My message to Republicans today is simple. If you're a candidate focus on the issues that affect Wisconsin families and their pocketbooks. It's time to pivot away from conspiracy theories to kitchen table issues," Knudson said.
Knudson and Republican commissioner Robert Spindell are the only eligible commissioners to be elected chairman for the next two years because of state rules requiring Republican and Democratic members take turns being chair. Following Knudson's resignation, commissioners voted 5-1 to delay a vote to choose the next chair to June.
"It's been made clear to me that from the highest levels of the Republican Party in Wisconsin that there was a deep desire that I not be chair. And that's fine," Knudson said.
Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chairwoman of the commission, called Knudson's comments "heartfelt and incredibly brave."
"You and I have not always seen eye to eye on this commission but I feel we have at our best worked very hard together across the aisle to make sure that Wisconsin has fair safe and accurate elections," she told Knudson.
Spindell, who posed as a presidential elector in 2020 for Trump, unsuccessfully pushed to keep the vote on Wednesday, in part, because he is taking a cruise to Italy and Greece.
"I believe I can do the best job as chairman of this besieged organization by ensuring that transparency is the name of the game," he said, reading prepared remarks.
Republicans have turned against the commission they took the lead in creating because of policies it approved during the 2020 presidential election to navigate hurdles presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
The commission mailed absentee ballot applications to all voters, advised local officials on how to make ballot drop boxes secure and set new policies for voting in nursing homes. State law requires clerks to send poll workers to nursing homes, but the commission told the clerks to ignore that law and send residents absentee ballots because nursing homes weren't allowing visitors during the pandemic.
Few Republicans criticized the commission's decisions when they made them but called out the agency after Joe Biden narrowly defeated Trump in the state. Recounts and court rulings have confirmed Biden's win.
Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.