One of the 10 fake electors from Wisconsin during the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt has been working for Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R) reelection campaign for months as a paid staffer.
The American Independent’s Josh Israel reported last week that Pam Travis’ name was one of those that appeared in a packet that arrived in Johnson’s Senate office on Jan. 6, 2021. The packet, given to Johnson’s office with the intention for the senator to deliver it to then-Vice President Mike Pence, contained a list of fake electors from Wisconsin and Michigan pledging their respective states’ electoral votes to Donald Trump. The voters in those two states voted for Joe Biden.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Travis has been working on Johnson’s campaign staff since March. Travis is also heavily involved in Wisconsin’s Republican Party, serving as the 7th Congressional District’s vice chair.
Travis refused to answer questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via phone about her involvement in the campaign. Ben Voelkel, a spokesperson for Johnson’s campaign, defended her, telling the Journal Sentinel that she is a “dedicated volunteer”, and the campaign is “proud to have her on the team.”
But Travis is not a volunteer, at least in the common definition of the word. Johnson’s campaign has her on their payroll, where it paid over $12,000 for her work, Federal Election Commission records show.
Johnson has repeatedly downplayed his involvement with the alleged fake elector scheme since the Jan. 6 Committee revealed text messages from his staff that implicated him. In an interview with WISN-TV 12 News earlier this month, Johnson said he will not testify to the committee because he was only involved in the scheme for “a couple of seconds.”
Ron Johnson won’t testify to the Jan. 6 Committee because he only plotted to overthrow the election for “a couple seconds.”
“I had virtually no involvement!” he said. “Literally, my involvement lasted seconds. OK?” pic.twitter.com/vsTZSCqkYj
— David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) August 21, 2022
Johnson is running for a third term against Wisconsin’s Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D). This highly contested seat could decide which party has the majority in the U.S. Senate, and recent polling shows a slight edge to Barnes.