Ron Johnson is linking himself to President Donald Trump’s election challenge as tightly as possible as he decides whether to run for reelection to a must-win Senate seat for Republicans.
Johnson, a steadfast Trump ally who has endeared himself to the president with his various investigative pursuits, is defending his approach, even as he faces a possible reelection campaign in a state that President-elect Joe Biden won in November. And Democrats are taking notice.
The Wisconsin Republican, who says he has not yet decided whether to seek a third term in 2022, has used his perch as the chairman of the Senate’s chief oversight body to investigate Trump’s political foes — from Hunter Biden to Hillary Clinton and the slew of Obama administration officials who launched the Russia probe — and is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on alleged “irregularities” in the election even as he recognizes Biden as the president-elect.
“I don’t feel bad about what I’ve done. I think I’m being vindicated right now,” Johnson said in an interview this week, referring to his myriad investigations. “It’s a record I’m proud of. … Time will prove me right. It will vindicate what I’ve tried to do here.”
It’s a risky political gamble for Johnson, who is betting that his embrace of Trump through his prior probes and his upcoming election hearing will energize the president’s base, which remains strong in Wisconsin despite Democratic wins statewide in 2018 and 2020. Still, Johnson’s decision to hold Wednesday’s hearing is drawing bipartisan ire as Trump’s allegations of voter fraud continue to crumble in federal court. It also comes two days after the Electoral College sealed Biden’s victory.
But Johnson is used to going it alone. In 2016, the national GOP apparatus all-but abandoned him, believing that he would lose his bid for a second term against Democrat Russ Feingold, largely leaving him to fight an uphill reelection battle on his own.
Johnson’s shock win that year made him more confident in his own instincts — and he’s unapologetic about his investigative pursuits that have drawn angry rebukes from Democrats, who have accused him of aiding a foreign influence campaign, and even some Republicans who have sought to distance themselves from him.
Johnson, like all GOP committee chairs, is term-limited on the panel and is slated to give up his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee gavel in January. His likely successor, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), is less inclined to continue the Johnson-era probes; but Johnson is expected to chair the panel’s permanent subcommittee on investigations — a position he is certain to use to go after the Biden administration on a range of subjects.
“I’m just doing everything I can because I think it’s important, when people go into an election and say, ‘I’m going to vote for that guy,’ they ought to know he has all kinds of foreign financial entanglements, and he’s lied to you bold-faced about them,” Johnson said about the Biden family.
Indeed, Johnson pointed to the recent revelation of a federal investigation targeting Biden’s son Hunter — though that probe centers on his taxes and business dealings. Johnson’s investigation was largely focused on efforts to leverage Hunter Biden’s position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company to influence the Obama-era State Department. Hunter Biden has maintained that he acted within the bounds of the law, both in defending himself against the tax investigation and his position on Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm. There is scant evidence to back up Johnson’s Burisma claims.
Democrats believe Johnson’s strategy, if he intends to run for reelection, is clear: He’s trying to hold onto Trump’s base to power him to a third term. Trump has led his supporters to believe that the 2020 election was rigged against him, and Johnson is feeding that narrative with his recent statements as well as his intention to hold a hearing on the subject.
Meanwhile, Democrats are itching to throw Johnson out of power — perhaps more so than any other Senate Republican who is on the ballot in 2022. Even before the 2020 election was over, a Democratic opponent stepped forward to challenge Johnson, and the party is betting that Johnson’s full-on embrace of Trumpism will fare poorly in Wisconsin.
“Of all the Trump apologists, he stands out as number one,” Tom Nelson, the first prominent Democrat to jump into the race against Johnson, said in an interview. “People were upset at Johnson before the election, but it has — I mean, I would use the word contempt. Because he’s not doing his job.”