2 outspoken election deniers lose GOP primaries for state Legislature

Two of Wisconsin’s most vocal election deniers lost their bids for the state Legislature Tuesday, coming up short in Republican primaries.

In suburban Milwaukee, state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls,  lost to state Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, in a race for the recently redrawn 24th Assembly District.

And in eastern Wisconsin’s new 20th Senate District, former state Rep. Timothy Ramthun of Campbellsport was defeated by state Sen. Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac.

24th Assembly District

Knodl cruised to victory with 65 percent of the vote against Brandtjen, according to an unofficial tally by the Associated Press.

Brandtjen was first elected to the state Assembly in 2014. Knodl was first elected to the state Legislature in 2008, and currently represents Wisconin’s 8th Senate District. Last year, he beat Brandtjen in a special election primary race to fill that seat.

Brandtjen lost despite being endorsed by former President Donald Trump ahead of the primary. Brandtjen has promoted false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and has echoed calls for the results to be overturned in Trump’s favor.

Like Trump, she has clashed with Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and backed unsuccessful attempts to oust him from office. In 2022, other Assembly Republicans barred Brandtjen from their closed-door caucus meetings, citing a loss of trust.

Both Knodl and Brandtjen were among the lawmakers who signed a Jan. 5, 2021 letter, asking then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay certifying the 2020 election results. Knodl has since acknowledged that Biden won, according to the Associated Press.

President Joe Biden won Wisconsin four years ago by just over 20,000 votes. Since then, a statewide canvas, a partial recount and multiple state and federal courts have upheld that victory.

In November, Knodl will face Democrat William Walter in the conservative district.

20th Senate District

The 20th Senate District race also saw decisive margins during Tuesday’s Republican primary, with unofficial results showing Feyen far ahead with 64 percent of the vote.

Feyen, the state Senate’s assistant majority leader, currently represents Wisconsin’s 18th Senate District.

Ramthun, a former state representative, ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

During his time in the Legislature, Ramthun authored a resolution calling for Wisconsin to decertify its 2020 presidential election results despite warnings from the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys that such an effort would be legally impossible.

Feyen is advancing to a general election match-up in the Republican-leaning district against Democrat Michael Rapp.

“I take pride in the positive campaign that I ran, talking to voters and discussing my accomplishments and my vision for the future,” Feyen said in a statement released on election night.

Like Brandtjen, Ramthun also sparred with Vos as a member of the Legislature. In 2022, after Ramthun criticized Republicans for not doing more to overturn the 2020 election, Vos punished Ramthun by taking away his lone legislative staff member.