Anti-Trump Republican group launches ad campaign targeting election denier Janel Brandtjen in state Senate race
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
MADISON — A Wisconsin state legislative race is a new target of a national Republican group created to support the reelections of GOP members of Congress who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Americans for Country First is spending at least $55,000 on ads criticizing state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Republican from Menomonee Falls who is seeking a seat in the state Senate in a special election this spring. She faces state Rep. Dan Knodl of Germantown and Thiensville Village President Van Mobley in a Feb. 21 Republican primary. The winner will go on to face Jodi Habush Sinykin of Whitefish Bay.
In the ad, Brandtjen is described as "inept, unqualified, ineffective" — citing words her caucus leader, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, used to describe Brandtjen following the midterm elections.
"... Brandtjen spends her time tearing others down and dividing the state. She's not fighting for us. She's promoting herself," the ad says using a voiceover and a photo of Brandtjen speaking at a rally Trump held ahead of the August primary election during which he blasted Vos for not doing more to undo his election loss.
Brandtjen did not immediately respond to the ads.
The ads, first reported by Wispolitics.com, are from a group founded in 2021 by advisers to Adam Kinzinger, a former Illinois congressman who helped lead a U.S. House investigation into Trump's involvement in the attack and has been outspoken against Republicans who embraced Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. Brandtjen is one of those Republicans.
Republican members of the state Assembly voted to expel Brandtjen from private caucus meetings after the Menomonee Falls Republican campaigned for Vos' opponent Adam Steen in the primary and general election and publicly criticized Vos for not doing more to litigate the 2020 election, including overturning its result — an illegal and impossible act.
After Trump began falsely claiming his 2020 loss in Wisconsin was a result of massive voter fraud, Brandtjen used her position as chairwoman of the Assembly elections committee to promote baseless conspiracy theories about the state's election system and gave a platform in the state Capitol to election deniers through committee hearings. Brandtjen received an endorsement and public praise from Trump as a result.
The group running digital ads against Brandtjen describes itself as a super PAC "dedicated to supporting principled Republican candidates in GOP primaries," according to its website.
While the group has so far focused on Brandtjen, Knodl also has embraced Trump's election distortions.
A day before the results of the 2020 presidential election were scheduled to be certified by Congress, Knodl and 14 other Wisconsin lawmakers signed a letter urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay certification.
"The 2020 election witnessed an unprecedented and admitted defiance of state law and procedural irregularities raising questions about the validity of hundreds of thousands of ballots in our respective states," the letter read.
The national Republican State Leadership Committee also is spending $163,550 on behalf of Knodl through television ads, mailers and text messaging, according to state campaign finance records.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Anti-Trump Republican group launches ads targeting Janel Brandtjen
