MOUNT PLEASANT - Assembly Speaker Robin Vos inched past his Republican challenger Tuesday, barely overcoming a national effort to unseat him led by the former president of the United States.
Vos, the longest-serving Assembly leader in state history, defeated a little-known Republican challenger backed by former President Donald Trump by fewer than 300 votes — a stunning margin for the most effective lawmaker in the state.
The Rochester Republican's victory over Adam Steen all but ensures Vos will win re-election in the Republican-leaning district in southeastern Wisconsin.
Vos narrowly survived a challenge by Steen that came to symbolize the intense discontent within the base of the Wisconsin GOP that had turned against Vos following the 2020 election, a loss for former President Donald Trump that the former president and his supporters argue could have been overturned by Vos.
Vos has rejected that idea, repeatedly refusing to take the illegal and impossible act of decertifying the election result, but Trump has pressed the case for more than a year — calling Vos out in statements blasted to millions of supporters and endorsing Steen in the final weeks of the primary race.
On Friday, Trump devoted a portion of his hour-long speech at a rally for Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels to castigating Vos and promoting Steen.
Criticizing Vos became part of base Republicans' identity over the course of the last year, pushing allies of Vos who were running for statewide...
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