Retiring Rep. Mike Gallagher told Wisconsin GOP county chairs on February 10 that he will NOT change his “no” vote to yes in the Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment.
Four Wisconsin Republican Party county chairs met with GOP Congressman Gallagher on Saturday in hopes they could change his mind about voting “no” on the impeachment of Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. They were hoping Gallagher will switch his vote to “yes” and support impeaching Mayorkas in Tuesday’s re-vote.
It didn’t work.
That comes as news broke that, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gallagher will not be running again in November. Around the same time, Gallagher told the county chairs that he is not seeking reelection. He then released a statement on X, confirming he’s not running again. We’re hearing that former state Sen. Roger Roth is going to announce he is running for Gallagher’s seat.
A statement from Congressman Gallagher. pic.twitter.com/93xhZIyVRb
— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) February 10, 2024
Stephanie Soucek, the chair of the Door County GOP, told Wisconsin Right Now in an exclusive interview that she and three other county chairs from Gallagher’s congressional district were meeting with Gallagher today. They want the party to unite around border security efforts, she said, adding that the chairs hoped to have a positive dialogue with Gallagher to achieve that goal. She confirmed to WRN that Gallagher informed the chairs he is not seeking re-election.
After the meeting she told WRN that Gallagher told the chairs that “he won’t be changing his vote.” She said he told the chairs he believes “Republicans haven’t exhausted other ways to hold Mayorkas accountable,” such as defunding things or subpoenaing him.
The Mayorkas impeachment vote ended up being 214-216, so the three Republicans, including Gallagher, sank the vote when they joined Democrats in voting no. CNN called the vote a “stunning defeat” for Republican leadership. The other Republicans in the Wisconsin delegation voted to impeach Mayorkas.
So it begins. Mike Gallagher, who was one of the 4 Republicans who voted against impeaching Mayorkas, may now draw a primary challenger in Trump loyalist Alex Bruesewitz. He says that he is “taking a strong look” at it. What will Trump do? Will Gallagher switch his vote? pic.twitter.com/sDEEC28wkT
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 10, 2024
Gallagher has been taking heat from national conservatives and some Wisconsin GOP chairs for his Mayorkas “no” vote. There is another vote, on Tuesday, as Republican Steve Scalise was missing from the first vote due to cancer treatments. That means Gallagher, if he were to switch his vote, could flip the vote in the other direction.
Three county chairs “said they are not going to come” to today’s meeting, Soucek said, indicating that was a “boycott or they just don’t want to be there because they think the damage is done.” Three county chairs can’t meet for other reasons. Four are meeting with Gallagher, Soucek said.
Gallagher’s no vote has so upset some county chairs that Ken Sikora, the chair of the Oconto County GOP, previously wrote a letter indicating that it was time to consider a Republican primary opponent against Gallagher.
Soucek said the county chairs meeting with Gallagher today believe the lack of border security “is a dereliction of duty by this administration.” She said Mayorkas is “willfully going along with the administration making the border less secure.” She declined to name the chairs at the meeting or who are boycotting it.
She said there is concern that terrorists could cross the border and also cited drug and human trafficking problems. “There are millions of people where we don’t know where they are and who they are,” she said, explaining why the county chairs believe Mayorkas should be impeached. “All of this is a purposeful effort to make our country less secure.”
Soucek said shortly before news broke that Gallagher will not run again, that she personally didn’t want a primary against Gallagher. “We can still together find a positive way forward,” she said. “I am going to do everything I can. I still appreciate a lot of things about Mike. Overall, we are encouraging him to rethink things and hear us out.”
Asked if the chairs want Gallagher to change his impeachment vote to yes, she said, “We do. We would like him to.”
According to Soucek, “Mike has met with us several times in the past. We felt it was important to meet and express how we feel. This is out of control. He (Gallagher) needs to hear how we sincerely feel. This is a really fragile situation, and within the party, we don’t want to be fractured. We want to figure out a way forward.”
Ken Sikora, the chair of the Republican Party of Oconto County, previously sent a message to the county chairs in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, saying that he strongly condemns Gallagher for “defending Biden DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.”
He said in that letter that the border situation is dire “and only serious consequences for inaction will fix this and impeachment of the officials in charge would have been a great start. Our communities here in Wisconsin are suffering because of the flood of illegals, and we expected Rep. Gallagher to do the right thing, hold people accountable, vote for impeachment, and instead he gave us lip service.”
He said it was time to “start seriously considering Gallagher alternatives,” and floated the name of “close Trump-ally Alex Bruesewitz,” although he said “he is not committed to running at this time.” He said he extended an invite for Bruesewitz to address the Oconto County GOP.
