Post submitted by Ianthe Metzger, Former Press Secretary, State & Local 

As President Donald Trump heads to Wisconsin tomorrow to campaign for Governor Scott Walker and U.S. Senate Candidate Leah Vukmir, HRC is exposing the records of these anti-equality candidates who have a long historyof undermining LGBTQ equality.

“Scott Walker and Leah Vukmir are two extremists who are the antithesis of Wisconsin values,” said HRC Wisconsin State Director Wendy Strout. “From their long records attacking Wisconsin’s most marginalized communities, to their continuous efforts to sell out their constituents to score cheap political points, they remain far out of touch with the majority of Wisconsinites who support fairness and equality. Wisconsin voters won’t stand for their discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ agenda. With less than two weeks until the crucial midterm elections, HRC is mobilizing its hundreds of thousands of members and supporters in Wisconsin to reject the politics of hate and elect pro-equality champions Senator Tammy Baldwin and Tony Evers.”

Governor Scott Walker’s dangerous record includes supporting Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment banning marriage equality, vetoing a bill to provide domestic partner benefits to workers and attempting to kill a domestic partner registry. He supports banning qualified transgender people from serving in the military, saying he “wouldn’t change” the Trump-Pence administration’s unconstitutional policy. Walker also rejected Medicaid expansion under Obamacare and supported repeal of the entire law, which could have stripped health care from millions of Wisconsinites, including the 2.4 million Wisconsin residents with a pre-existing condition.

Throughout her almost two decades in public office, Leah Vukmir has derailed efforts to pass commonsense protections for the LGBTQ community, including protections for LGBTQ youth facing discrimination and bullying at school. She is a long time opponent of marriage equality and has close ties to some of the nation’s most virulently anti-LGBTQ organizations, such as the Family Research Council. Vukmir has consistently voted against pro-equality legislation, and she has pushed for a license to discriminate in the healthcare system that would prioritize physicians’ beliefs over life-saving patient care. In addition to her attacks on the LGBTQ community, Vukmir’s extremist agenda also includes attacks on voting rights; health care, including reproductive rights and mental health treatment; education; and the environment.

In Wisconsin, HRC has identified more than 560,000 million “Equality Voters” -- voters who support LGBTQ-inclusive policies. HRC has prioritized investments and organizing in Wisconsin in the 2018 cycle, and has staff and resources on the ground in the state as part of the largest grassroots expansion in the organization’s 38-year history.