1. Robin Joseph Vos was born on July 5,1968 and is an American businessman and Republican politician and the 79th speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving in that role since 2013.
50 Facts About Robin Vos
1. 2.
Robin Vos has been a member of the Assembly since 2005, representing most of the southern half of Racine County.
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Robin Vos came to prominence for his role in shepherding legislation to weaken bargaining rights and labor unions in Wisconsin while Scott Walker was governor, which culminated in the failed 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election.
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Robin Vos has been speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly since 2013, retaining Republican control of the chamber through Republican-created maps.
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Gableman's appointment came a day after Trump had accused Robin Vos of participating in a coverup of the election.
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Robin Vos fired Gableman in August 2022, three days after a primary election in which Gableman had endorsed Robin Vos's challenger.
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Robin Vos was born in 1968, in Burlington, Wisconsin, in Racine County.
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In 1994, Robin Vos was elected to the Racine county board of supervisors.
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Robin Vos remained on the board for the next 10 years.
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Also in 1994, Robin Vos worked as district director for US representative Mark Neumann of Wisconsin.
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In 1996 Robin Vos purchased the RoJos Popcorn Company in Burlington.
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Robin Vos has an ownership stake of $4.8 million in rental properties in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
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In 2021, Robin Vos led Republican efforts in the Wisconsin legislature to redirect COVID-19 relief payments so that they would go directly to landlords, such as himself, rather than renters.
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In 2004, Robin Vos ran for the Wisconsin state assembly to succeed Ladwig in the 63rd district.
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Robin Vos was unopposed in the 2004 primary and general elections.
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In 2013, Robin Vos was elected speaker of the Wisconsin assembly.
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Robin Vos said he was certain he had followed ethics rules with his travel.
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Robin Vos opposes Medicaid expansion and spearheaded Republican efforts to block Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin.
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In 2016 Robin Vos endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination for president.
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In February 2019 Robin Vos defended Brian Hagedorn, a judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, amid reports that Hagedorn had founded a school in 2016 that allowed for the expulsion of students and faculty if they were gay.
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Robin Vos said he believed Hagedorn could rule fairly on LGBT issues.
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Robin Vos later accused Anderson of political grandstanding and attempting to sabotage him as Vos took on his new national role as head of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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In November 2020, Robin Vos was reelected by 16 percentage points.
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In February 2021, Robin Vos sent a letter to the governor asking him to order that flags on state buildings be lowered in honor of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who had recently died.
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In October 2021, Robin Vos defended a heavily pro-Republican gerrymandered redistricting map for Wisconsin.
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Robin Vos has been described as having a significant role in obstructing Governor Tony Evers.
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Robin Vos claimed it was to restore a balance of power between the governor and the legislature, despite having previously voted to expand gubernatorial power.
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Robin Vos said the changes were intended to lock in laws passed by Republicans and to prevent the incoming Democratic administration from fulfilling its campaign pledges, particularly a pledge to withdraw Wisconsin from a lawsuit seeking to overturn the federal Affordable Care Act.
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Robin Vos later clarified that the city he was volunteering for required that he wear the protective equipment.
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In March 2021, after Congress passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-relief stimulus package, Robin Vos suggested that Wisconsin should reject the federal government's assistance to provide the unemployed with unemployment benefits for their first week of unemployment.
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In November 2021, Robin Vos said that members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission should "probably" face felony charges for easing some of the regulations around voting in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Robin Vos opposes vaccine requirements for private businesses' employees and customers.
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In November 2020, days after the unofficial count showed Joe Biden winning Wisconsin in the 2020 presidential election by 20,000 votes, Robin Vos directed an investigatory committee to review how the election was administered.
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In May 2021, Robin Vos appropriated $680,000 in taxpayer money to fund an investigation by Michael Gableman into fraud in the 2020 election; there was no evidence of substantial fraud in the election and all lawsuits that claimed fraud were dismissed by courts.
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Shortly after the report's release, Robin Vos signed a new contract with Gableman to extend his investigation.
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Donald Trump endorsed Steen after Robin Vos refused to fully support unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
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Three days after winning the primary, Robin Vos fired Gableman, calling him "an embarrassment to the state".
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Less than a month after she assumed office, Robin Vos began leading calls to impeach her, using the Legislature's large Republican majorities.
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Robin Vos claimed Protasiewicz had prejudged important upcoming cases on legislative gerrymandering and abortion, and therefore had to recuse from those cases or be subject to impeachment.
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The situation prompted intense backlash, with state and national Democrats accusing Robin Vos of attempting to throw out the 2023 election.
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Robin Vos then unveiled a bill he said he would attempt to pass within 48 hours.
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Robin Vos initially appeared hesitant to enter into another impeachment controversy so soon after the public rebuke from his judicial advisors over the idea of impeaching Protasiewicz.
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Robin Vos had hired Gableman to investigate the 2020 election and then fired him after the 2022 primary elections; Brantjen had been barred from the Republican Assembly caucus meetings and stripped of her committee chairmanship after an earlier clash with Robin Vos.
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Hours after the pressure campaign was publicly announced, Robin Vos took steps to move forward with the impeachment, referring the proposal to the Assembly Committee on Government Accountability and Oversight.
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Right-wing anger at Robin Vos resulted in two efforts to trigger recall elections.
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Robin Vos misled the WI Assembly in the impeachment of Megan [sic] Wolfe.
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Robin Vos said he will 'try as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump is not the nominee in 2024'.
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The first recalled attempt failed because not enough of the signatures collected were from people living in the newly constituted 33rd assembly district, which Vos had been redistricted into under the election map adopted after Clarke v Wisconsin Elections Commission.
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Robin Vos called his hiring Gableman "probably the single biggest embarrassment that I have ever had" and said Gableman should be disbarred.
50.
Robin Vos is second vice-chair of the board of directors of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation.