A top Republican who has been described as Wisconsin’s “shadow governor” is the latest GOP figure to abruptly retire during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, 57, said Thursday he will step down at the end of the 2026—years after President Donald Trump accused him of an election “cover-up” that led to him launching a probe into the election that returned no evidence of fraud or abuse.
Vos angered Trump, 79, with his initial refusal to investigate voter fraud in Wisconsin, a state he lost in 2020, but he eventually called on a former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to look into the matter. However, the probe only sowed conspiracy and chaos, so Vos fired him.
Vos later said launching the baseless probe was the biggest mistake he ever made. Now, he is using his final months as speaker—a position he has held for a record straight 14 years—to push for the investigator, Justice Michael Gableman, to have his law license revoked.
Despite him launching a probe, the break with Trump split support for the Burlington, Wisconsin, native. Trump endorsed his primary challenger in 2022, and some of the president’s supporters in the state unsuccessfully attempted to recall Vos.
During a 2022 rally in Wisconsin, Trump called Vos a “RINO” and told the crowd, “A lot of people think he’s a Democrat.” He continued complaining about Vos in 2024, claiming he was somehow the reason he lost the election to Joe Biden.
Vos has fired back at those attacking him over the years-old election as “whack jobs and morons.”
The politician did not state a definitive reason for his retirement, but told the Associated Press that he had suffered a mild heart attack in November. He said his health was not the sole reason he is leaving politics, but said, “It was the tap on the shoulder that I needed to make sure that my decision is right.”
Vos told the wire service it was “unlikely” he would run for office again—but he stopped short of outright ruling it out.
The AP writes that Vos was a thorn in the side of Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, having “thwarted much of Evers’ policy agenda the past seven years.” Vos is said to have “kneecapped” Evers before he ever took office, using a lame duck session in 2018 to weaken the powers of the governorship in the Badger State.
Once Evers took office, Vos ignored special sessions Evers called and further limited his powers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, filing a successful lawsuit that overturned Evers’ stay-at-home order.
While he is likely happy to see him go, Evers offered light praise for his longtime foe.
“Although we’ve disagreed more often than we didn’t, I respect his candor, his ability to navigate complex policies and conversations, and his unrivaled passion for politics,” Evers told the AP.
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