MADISON, Wisconsin — As Wisconsin voters head to the polls, Human Rights Campaign PAC (HRC PAC) is calling attention to the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-choice record of incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, who is up for reelection. Sen. Johnson received a score of 7 out of 100 on HRC’s recently released Congressional Scorecard for the 117th Congress, which scored members of Congress based on a range of key indicators of support — including votes in the Senate to confirm historic, pro-LGBTQ+ Biden-Harris cabinet officials and judicial nominees, as well as co-sponsorships on pieces of legislation that significantly impact LGBTQ+ people and their families.

“Ron Johnson’s recent flip flopping on support for marriage equality – ultimately deciding he won’t vote to protect it – provides Wisconsin voters with an illustrative example that he is completely out of touch with views of a super majority of state voters. In this, on top of his incomprehensible and harmful policy positions, he’s shown again and again that the people of Wisconsin simply cannot count on him,” said Human Rights Campaign Wisconsin State Director Wendy Strout. “Wisconsin believes in LGBTQ+ equality, and the rights of all people to participate fully in society. Wisconsin believes we should control our own bodies and lives and not turn that power over to politicians. Ron Johnson has failed for more than a decade to protect the LGBTQ+ community, and his score of 7 out of 100 on our Congressional Scorecard is one more data point that demonstrates it. That’s why he’s the wrong person to represent this state.”

In recent months, Johnson left heads spinning when he reversed course on the Respect for Marriage Act, indicating that he’d vote against the legislation – which would protect marriage equality for millions of LGBTQ+ and multiracial families – mere weeks after saying he saw “no reason to oppose” the bill.

This latest deplorable action caps a long, regressive track record for the second-term Republican, including supporting abortion restrictions (including efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade), opposing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, and spouting hateful rhetoric against transgender people.

The other members of Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation earned the following scores:

• Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D): 100

• Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R): 0

• Rep. Mike Gallagher (R): 0

• Rep. Glenn Grothman (R): 0

• Rep. Ron Kind (D): 98

• Rep. Gwen Moore (D): 98

• Rep. Mark Pocan (D): 100

• Rep. Bryan Steil (R): 12

• Rep. Tom Tiffany (R): 0

Ron Johnson is A Candidate Out of Step with Wisconsin

Polling released in September by HRC showed that about two-thirds (64%) of likely voters in 2022 battleground states – Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – support a law “protecting the national right to same-sex marriage.”

Similarly, in a poll released earlier this year by PRRI, 84% of Wisconsin respondents supported LGBT non-discrimination protections, 64% opposed religiously based service refusals, and 73% supported marriage equality.

When it comes to abortion, a New York Times analysis of various polls over the past decade showed that 54% of Wisconsin residents favor abortion access. A decade worth of polls released this year from Marquette Law School shows similar support.

HRC’s Commitment to Wisconsin

Equality Voters, including the more than 710,000 in Wisconsin, are a voting bloc of demographically and geographically diverse Americans who are united by the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality. Equality Voters are younger, more racially diverse, and more female than the general electorate, they recognize and trust the HRC brand, and they are more likely to identify with issue-specific organizations than candidates or political parties.

Across the country, HRC PAC works every day to elect pro-equality leaders who support policies that will support the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people. During the 2020 election cycle, HRC staff on the ground recruited 5,800 individual volunteers nationwide who completed 28,500 hours of voter contact in more than 2,650 volunteer events. HRC engaged in robust digital and online GOTV efforts, including sending over 2.7 million person-to-person text messages, a massive increase from 2018 when approximately 500,000 texts were sent. HRC sent over 2.5 million mail pieces, had over 930,000 phone conversations with voters, and engaged more than 200,000 voters through HRC’s voter dashboard at hrc.org/vote.