Robin Vos survives a symbolic vote at the Republican state convention to oust him as Assembly speaker
Molly Beck
MADISON – First, he was booed and jeered. Then, more than a third of Wisconsin Republicans gathered at their state convention Saturday voted to oust him. But Robin Vos survived. Again.
Wisconsin's Assembly speaker remains at the center of the fight within the state Republican Party over the false claims of voter fraud successfully deployed by former President Donald Trump to build doubt over his legitimate election loss in 2020.
And on Saturday, Vos withstood a second attempt in as many years to call for his removal — a punishment Republican activists want to level for his refusal to rescind the state's 10 Electoral College votes cast for President Joe Biden.
About 36% of convention delegates voted to approve a resolution calling for Vos to resign or be removed from his position as speaker. Forty percent supported a resolution to decertify the 2020 election, which has been deemed by legal scholars and constitutional attorneys to be impossible even as Trump continues to say otherwise.
The convention resolutions are symbolic votes with no practical impact.
The vote to oust Vos came hours after he had enraged much of the convention audience by declaring again that the 2020 election was over.
"I am going to say something that I'm sorry many of you might not want to hear, but we have no ability to decertify the election and go back and nullify it — we do not," Vos told the convention crowd during a legislative panel with Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu.
Over their boos, Vos said, "We need to focus on going forward. We need to focus on making sure that we have an election in 2022 and 2024 —." Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Paul Farrow, a former state lawmaker, interrupted Vos and the crowd's jeers to ask the delegates to "be respectful."
"We can say no, I know you disagree. And there's some of us that disagree on it. But let him talk," Farrow said.
More:A Republican base focused on the 2020 election turns on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos
Afterward, Vos said he didn't mind the backlash.
Biden won Wisconsin's presidential election in 2020 by about 21,000 votes. Recounts, lawsuits, a state audit and a conservative study have confirmed this win. But Trump and his allies continue to push the idea that the election was manipulated — a false claim that persists in Wisconsin political discourse nearly two years after it was first floated.
As the most powerful state lawmaker, Vos has become the symbol of Republicans' frustration despite keeping the beliefs in a stolen election alive by launching a now indefinite review of the 2020 election that is funded by taxpayers and has not revealed any evidence of significant voter fraud.
More:Wisconsin Republicans refuse to endorse any of the party's 4 candidates for governor
Russ Otten, chairman of the Sheboygan County GOP, later introduced a resolution to demand Vos resign or be removed as speaker for being "guilty of violating their oath of office by refusing to uphold the laws and standards" of the Wisconsin and state constitutions."
But the measure and a resolution to decertify the 2020 election ultimately failed.
"The motto of the state of Wisconsin is forward, not backwards. Let's forget about 2020. It's gone. It's done. Let's move forward," Bob Kordus of the Walworth County GOP said before the vote.
His comments were met with loud boos.
Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.