Robin Vos

Robin J. Vos (born July 5, 1968) is an American Republican politician and the 79th Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He has been a member of the Assembly since 2005, representing Racine County, and has been Speaker since 2013. Vos is the President of National Conference of State Legislatures. Since his actions during the 2020 Wisconsin spring election, some have called for his removal from his position.

After Democratic nominee Tony Evers won the 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, defeating incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker, Vos sought to curb the incoming governor's powers.

Vos was born on July 5, 1968, in Burlington, Wisconsin, in the southwest corner of Racine County. He graduated from Burlington High School in 1986.

Vos attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he studied political science and public relations. While at Whitewater, he roomed with Reince Priebus, who later became Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and the 27th White House Chief of Staff. In 1989, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Vos as a student representative on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Vos graduated in 1991.

After graduation, Vos worked as a legislative assistant to State Representatives Jim Ladwig and Bonnie Ladwig. 1994 Vos was elected to the Racine County Board of Supervisors. He remained on the board for the next 10 years. After the election Vos worked as district director for State Representative Mark Neumann.

In 1996 Vos purchased the RoJos Popcorn Company in Burlington.

In 2004 Vos ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly to succeed Ladwig in the 63rd district. He was unopposed in the 2004 primary and general elections.

After Republicans won full control of government in Wisconsin in 2010, Vos rose to prominence pushing the controversial budget restructuring act alongside Governor Scott Walker. The law curtailed collective bargaining rights and public education funding in Wisconsin, and led to massive protests around the state, culminating in the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election.

In 2013, Vos was elected Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly. Between 2014 and 2018 he received about $57,000 in travel and perks from lobbyists and organizations. He said he was certain he had followed ethics rules with his travel. Vos supports deregulating the payday loan industry. He opposes Medicaid expansion.

In 2016 Vos endorsed Marco Rubio for president. After Rubio dropped out of the race, Vos endorsed Ted Cruz.

In February 2019 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. Vos said he believed Hagedorn could rule fairly on LGBT issues.

In July 2019 Vos was widely criticized for refusing to prohibit overnight floor sessions or allow paralyzed Democratic lawmaker Jimmy Anderson, who is in a wheelchair, to phone into committee meetings. He 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.

In August 2019 Vos became the 47th President of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Curbing Evers administration

After Democratic nominee Tony Evers won the 2018 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, defeating incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker, Vos was the first public official to propose curbing the incoming governor's powers. He claimed it was to restore a balance of power between the governor and the legislature, despite having previously voted to expand gubernatorial power. Vos also 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. The Republican-led legislature was called into a December lame duck session and passed laws decreasing the powers of the incoming governor, limiting early voting, and giving the legislature more control. Outgoing governor Walker then signed the bill.

Christopher Beem of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy at Pennsylvania State University described Wisconsin Republicans' power grab as a "deeply undemocratic act." While it could be legal, Beem said, it erodes democratic norms: "Wisconsin’s GOP lawmakers are using power that the majority of the electorate has just taken away from them in order to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to undertake actions that the majority has just shown that it wants." In June 2019 the conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the December 2018 laws, ruling that extraordinary sessions are constitutional.

COVID-19 pandemic

In April 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Vos opposed calls by Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, to delay a scheduled election from early April to late May, to make it a mail-in election, and to mail ballots to all registered voters. The legislature adjourned without taking action on any of those proposals. When the governor then issued a last-minute emergency order to suspend in-person voting, Vos and the state senate majority leader appealed the order to the state supreme court, which overturned it, and the election was held as scheduled. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was estimated that many voters would be effectively disenfranchised, and in-person voting was also considered a public health risk. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Vos had no answer to how local election officials are supposed to keep people safe as a massive shortage of poll workers has resulted in the closure or reduction of polling locations, forcing more people to vote at a single site." Vos said, "If you are bored at home and sick of watching Netflix, volunteer to go and help at the polls."

On election day, Vos served as an election inspector. While "dressed in head to toe PPE [personal protective equipment] gear", he said it was "incredibly safe" to vote at the polls. More than 50 coronavirus cases in Wisconsin were later linked to in-person voting in the 2020 spring election. Many expect that number to continue to climb.

Due to the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature's slowness to waive a requirement that unemployed Wisconsites wait a week before they can be reimbursed unemployment benefits, Wisconsin lost $25 million in federal funding from the CARES Act. Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had been warned that this would happen if the waiver was not passed in time.

The seventh annual Children's Champion Policy Awards from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin were given to Vos and State Representatives Steve Doyle and Patrick Snyder for their work with the Speaker's Task Force on Foster Care. The award honors public policy leaders in Wisconsin who work to positively impact the lives of Wisconsin children and families by moving children's health policy forward.

Vos is the President-Elect of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan organization for legislators and staff, and the Second Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. A member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Vos is the group's former Wisconsin state chair.