GOP Wisconsin legislator Zimmerman missed 225 votes last session, one to attend AI summit

At 2:48 p.m. on June 24, 2025, Shannon Zimmerman sat on the Wisconsin Assembly floor in Madison, voting on legislation. Twenty minutes later, he was gone, according to WisEye video of the floor session. The Assembly continued voting through the afternoon, recording votes in Zimmerman’s name while his seat remained empty. Assembly Bill 187 was voted on at 3:08 p.m. Zimmerman’s vote is recorded but he is not in the chamber at that time, according to WisEye video. He was also recorded voting on AB 279 at 3:28 p.m. and SB 283 later in the session, despite being absent from his seat. The assembly adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

25 minutes later at 4:30 p.m. that same day, Zimmerman appeared on a panel about artificial intelligence at Summerfest TechAI in Milwaukee, an 80-minute drive from the Capitol without traffic. To reach a 4:30 panel 80 minutes away, he’d have had to leave Madison around 3:10.

The Assembly’s video does not show when Zimmerman left the Capitol or where he went after leaving the floor. It does show that he was last visible in his seat at 2:48 p.m. and absent by 3:08.

Zimmerman’s absence that afternoon was not an isolated one. He missed six of the Assembly’s 24 floor sessions during the 2025-26 legislative session, according to A Better Wisconsin Together, a progressive advocacy group. The group counted more than 225 votes he missed, which Heartland Signal verified. Zimmerman also missed three meetings between June 2025 and February 2026 of the Joint Finance Committee, his only committee assignment, including meetings where members considered state agency funding requests. University of Wisconsin-River Falls, a public university within Zimmerman’s district, is also one of the state’s largest employers in the area, making state and university employee compensation a particularly local issue.

Lucy Ripp of A Better Wisconsin Together said there are legitimate reasons lawmakers cannot attend every session. But six missed floor days, she said, is different. She said voters elect legislators to show up, participate and give their constituents a voice.

The question of how much an elected official needs to be physically present has an established answer in Wisconsin politics, though not always a simple one. Lawmakers routinely have seatmates cast votes when they briefly step away for food, the restroom or other business. The practice came under scrutiny in 2012, when then-Assemblymember Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) was caught on video voting for two colleagues. Wisconsin’s rules require members to be present in the chamber, which is defined broadly to include areas beyond the Assembly floor, and the practice of seatmates voting for one another has long been treated as legislative custom.

The Assembly’s schedule can make attendance difficult to predict. Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire) said the Republican majority, which controls the chamber, determines when impromptu or last-minute floor sessions are held. That flexibility, she said, is part of the reality lawmakers have to work around.

Emerson, a vocal critic of Zimmerman’s attendance record, also stressed that the work of an Assembly member does not happen only at a desk on the floor. Much of the Legislature’s work happens in committee meetings, conversations in the halls and even over dinner, where lawmakers negotiate and build support for legislation. But when the Assembly is in session, she said, members still have a responsibility to be in the chamber and represent their districts as voters elected them to do.

Tip McGuire (D-Kenosha), the Assembly’s Democratic minority leader and one of Zimmerman’s fellow panelists at Summerfest TechAI, drew a line at leaving the Capitol. Asked whether a lawmaker could leave the Capitol and have another member continue voting for them, McGuire’s answer was immediate: “I would think not. Yeah, that would be probably not right.”

Emerson offered essentially the same boundary. “Yes, within reason though,” she said of seatmate voting. Members are expected to be available in the building. “You are supposed to be in the building at least.” She had never seen a lawmaker have votes cast for them while they were outside the Capitol.

McGuire faced the same scheduling conflict Zimmerman did on June 24. He was scheduled for the 4:30 p.m. AI panel but withdrew as the Assembly session continued. “We were still on the floor, and I just didn’t think I could get down there in time and wrap up my work at the floor with our votes and stuff before I could get there.”

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The panel was unpaid, McGuire told Heartland Signal, and lawmakers regularly participate in events like it to discuss issues with people outside the Capitol. For Zimmerman, the subject was particularly close to home. Before entering politics, he spent decades in the technology industry, founded language translation company Sajan Inc. and built a professional identity around technology and artificial intelligence.

That makes the June 24 panel a legitimate part of Zimmerman’s public policy interests, but it also puts two parts of his job side by side, the professional expertise he brought into the Legislature and the legislative work he was elected to perform.

The subject of the June 24 panel also sits squarely within Zimmerman’s legislative record. In 2023, he authored legislation creating a sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment and software. The bill itself did not pass, but its language was ultimately included in the state budget signed by Gov. Tony Evers, creating the exemption. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue now estimates the break will cost the state $1.6 billion, according to WPR. Zimmerman has also authored legislation seeking to regulate data centers’ energy, water and land use but the bill died in the Senate.

For Robert Ebert, a 70-year-old Democrat who has lived in District 30 since 2006, the issue is less about one afternoon than whether Zimmerman is present in the community at all. Ebert has never voted for Zimmerman and plans to support his opponent, Kevin Knoke, but his criticism centers on what he sees as a lack of contact with constituents. He rarely sees Zimmerman around the district and has never seen him at his door, despite Zimmerman being his representative for the last 10 years.

After once contacting Zimmerman’s office about an issue and receiving a generic response, Ebert never heard back after being told someone would follow up. “He just seems like he’s not even really in the district,” Ebert said. “Seems like he’s down there and he’s in black hole almost.”

Assemblyman Zimmerman did not respond to a request for an interview.