Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to retire this year

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) announced that he will retire in November at the end of his current term, ending his record-long speakership.

Vos was first elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature in 2004, and he has overseen Republican domination in the state legislature in his 13-year stint as speaker, the longest in state history. During that time, the GOP degraded campaign finance restrictions under former Gov. Scott Walker (R), routinely blocked the agenda of Gov. Tony Evers (D) and, until recently, repeatedly refused to expand Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers.

State Rep. Robin Vos (R): “As long as I’m speaker of the [Wisconsin] Assembly, Medicaid expansion will never happen,” adding that he would rather resign and that “everybody” in the state already has access to high-quality health care. pic.twitter.com/HFGHG56ZcI

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) June 14, 2023

Much of Vos and the GOP’s power stemmed from gerrymandered legislative maps skewed toward Republicans, which were first used in 2012. Vos’ political machine torpedoed every attempt to pass fairer maps into law until liberals gained a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2023 and overturned the map.

Vos was also instrumental in the passage of Act 10, a bill signed into law by Walker in 2011 which effectively ended collective bargaining for public workers like teachers, nurses and state government employees. A lawsuit challenging Act 10’s constitutionality is currently working its way through the Wisconsin judicial system and could be overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Vos said he hasn’t ruled out running for office in the future. The 57-year-old also revealed he suffered a minor heart attack last November, though he says it didn’t influence his decision.