Republican congressional candidate Tony Wied at his campaign announcement. April 8, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Wisconsin elections officials decided not to throw out nomination signatures submitted by a candidate for the 8th Congressional District.
A challenge was filed against more than 200 signatures collected by Republican Tony Wied. A complaint was filed by former Green Bay alderman Tony Theisen, who alleged Wied’s circulators at a farmer’s market in Green Bay “deliberately misled electors to believe that they were providing signatures for ‘housing for the homeless’ when, in reality, they were signing the Respondent’s nominating papers.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission considered the challenge Monday morning. Commissioners voted to deny the challenge, keeping Wied on the ballot.
“We did do some analysis of the paperwork and determined that the headers were all correct and did indicate all of the lawfully required components that needed to be there and that the voters would have likely been on notice of what indeed it was that they were actually signing,” WEC chief legal counsel Jim Witecha told the commission. “We also had a sworn response to the challenges that indicated that they were not misrepresenting those things.”
Wied’s campaign released this statement after the decision:
Today’s unanimous ruling confirmed what we knew all along: career politicians will do whatever they can to try and hold power. The WEC’s dismissal of the complaint proves this was nothing more than a desperate attempt by my opponents to keep the Trump-Endorsed Conservative off the ballot. We look forward to earning the support of Wisconsin-8 voters and winning this primary on August 13th.
Wied is one of several candidates vying to replace U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who resigned earlier this year. This fall, there will be two elections — a special election to fill the seat until January, and the regular election for the next two-year term in the House of Representatives.
The complaint claimed 228 of the 1,670 signatures submitted for the special election, and 197 of the 1,773 submitted for the general election were collected by those particular volunteers.
A candidate needs 1,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot, but Theisen asked for a “thorough investigation” of all signatures.
The other Republicans in the race are state Sen. Andre Jacque and former state Sen. Roger Roth. Kristin Lyerly is the Democratic candidate.
The primary would be held Aug. 13. The general election is Nov. 5.
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