Former state Sen. Roger Roth (R-WI), who hopes to represent the Badger State’s eighth congressional district, has refused to endorse former President Donald Trump, up until he started running for Congress.
After Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced he would not seek reelection this November, one Republican, former state Sen. Roth, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022, said he would run for the Badger State’s eighth congressional district. The eighth district leans Republicans by roughly 16 points, which stretches from Appleton to Green Bay.
In his statement, Roth signaled that he would back national security and border security as well as traditional values.
Roth could very well face a competitive primary against pro-Trump activist Alex Bruesewitz.
Roth, who served as state Senate president from 2017 to 2021, used his campaign announcement to endorse former President Donald Trump and attack President Joe Biden.
However, Roth chose to only endorse Trump now that he is running for Congress; he struck a much different tune in 2022.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote that Roth not only refused to endorse Trump in July 2022, he also implied that the president would face a split party if he were to run.
“There are going to be a lot of great candidates running for president here on the Republican side. Our bench is very deep, and if Donald Trump wants to throw his hat in the ring, that’s great, but he’s going to have some stiff competition,” Roth said.
“MAGA world will not tolerate another weak career politician in this seat. Roth’s anti-Trump comments have already raised eyebrows in President Trump’s inner circles,” a source close to the Trump family told Breitbart News.Prominent anti-Trump former Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI), who used to represent the eighth district, in February did not describe Roth as pro-Trump and claimed that a “very hard, MAGA type candidate” could lead to a competitive race between the GOP nominee and the Democrat nominee for the district.
In August 2021, Roth and others urged lawmakers to back bringing Afghan refugees to Wisconsin.
“That Wisconsin was given an opportunity to be one of three locations where these refugees would arrive in the United States should be a point of pride for every Wisconsinite,” Roth and the other lawmakers wrote.
Great letter from Republican members of the Wisconsin Legislature about how we should humanely treat the Afghan refugees who are fleeing the barbaric Taliban.
— Jason Church (@JasonChurchWI) August 28, 2021
Thanks @SenKooyenga, @RepTonyKurtz , @SenatorRoth, Rep. Scott Allen, @RepJesseJames, & @RepSpiros. pic.twitter.com/2n31vf5n9y
Less than one month later, two Afghan refugees were charged with child sex and spousal abuse crimes at Fort McCoy in Tomah.
Roth was also the only Republican in the Wisconsin Senate in 2021 to oppose a measure to crack down on voter fraud, a major concern for Republicans after the 2020 presidential election.
The bill, among other things, would have barred election clerks from changing ballots.
“Under this bill, if a municipal clerk receives an absentee ballot with an improperly completed certificate or with no certificate, the clerk is required to return the ballot to the voter and post a notification of the defect on the voter’s voter information page on the Internet site that is used by voters for original registration, currently titled MyVote Wisconsin. The bill also prohibits the municipal clerk from correcting a defect in the certificate,” the bill reads.
Roth also in 2021 was absent from a vote to oversee how Gov. Tony Evers (D) spent pandemic relief funds.
In 2020, when Republican activists wanted to trigger a constitutional convention to enact a federal balanced budget amendment, Roth was once again the sole Republican vote against the measure.
“Roger Roth’s campaign is doomed to fail because of his long history of anti-Trump comments, his weak immigration policy positions and his general and unmistakable aversion to America First policies,” a source close to President Trump said in a statement to Breitbart News.Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
