ICYMI: Far-Right Supreme Court Candidate Brad Schimel Spreads False Election Conspiracy Theories

MADISON, Wis. — From the familiar comforts of conservative talk radio yesterday, far-right politician Brad Schimel took a page out of election-denier Eric Hovde’s playbook and spread debunked election conspiracy theories about nonexistent voter fraud in Milwaukee.

Schimel’s comments drew immediate rebuke from a bipartisan group dedicated to dispelling election disinformation—a group that includes Schimel’s predecessor, former Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

But Brad Schimel is no stranger to election conspiracy theories. Prior to alleging that mystery “bags of ballots” and voter fraud in Milwaukee caused Eric Hovde to lose in Wisconsin, Schimel suggested the Wisconsin Supreme Court “screwed [Donald Trump] over” for not throwing out legal ballots and overturning the 2020 election.

“Buying into election conspiracy theories is disqualifying for any candidate for office—much less for a sitting judge like Brad Schimel who wants to join the state’s highest court,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Deputy Communications Director Haley McCoy. “Wisconsin deserves a justice who will defend the rule of law, not a Donald Trump devotee in a robe willing to sell out our democracy for a few brownie points.”

Read more about Brad Schimel spreading baseless election conspiracies:

Associated Press: Republican-backed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate resurfaces unproven fraud concerns
By: Scott Bauer

• The Republican-backed candidate in Wisconsin’s closely watched state Supreme Court race has resurfaced long debunked concerns about voting fraud because of the late reporting of ballots in Milwaukee just two weeks before the April 1 election.
   
• Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general, spoke of the possibility of “bags of ballots” and fraud in Milwaukee during an interview Tuesday on conservative talk radio.
   
• Schimel, in an interview on WISN-AM, said his supporters need to “get our votes banked, make this too big to rig so we don’t have to worry that at 11:30 in Milwaukee, they’re going to find bags of ballots that they forgot to put into the machines.”
   
• Schimel said that happened in 2018 and in November “when (U.S. Senate candidate) Eric Hovde was ahead all night, and then all of a sudden, Milwaukee County changed that.”
   
• Republicans and Democrats alike, along with state and Milwaukee election leaders, warned in the run-up to the November election that Milwaukee absentee ballots would be reported late and cause a huge influx of Democratic votes. Milwaukee is the state’s most populated city and is heavily Democratic.
   
• The reporting of those absentee ballots swung the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, fueling baseless conspiracy theories that the election had been stolen from President Donald Trump.
   
• Milwaukee’s absentee ballots are counted at a central location and reported all at once, often well after midnight on election day. Elections officials for years have made clear that those ballots are reported later than usual due to the sheer number that have to be counted and because state law does not allow them to be processed until polls open.
   
• Schimel said in the radio interview he didn’t know what happened.
   
• “I don’t know if there was fraud there,” Schimel said. “There’s no way for me to know that. All I know is this: We need to turn our votes out. That’s the best insulation we have against any potential fraud, is just get our people to the polls.”
   
• Crawford’s spokesperson, Derrick Honeyman, said Schimel was “dabbling in conspiracy theories to please his ally, Elon Musk, and it’s unbecoming of a judge and candidate for the state’s high court.”
   
• Schimel’s comments drew criticism from the Democracy Defense Project, a bipartisan coalition promoting truth about elections that includes former Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.
   
• “There is no evidence of fraud in Milwaukee, but the failure of the state to allow early counting on absentee ballots before the close of polls feeds into conspiracy theories,” the group said in a statement.

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