Glenn Grothman

Glenn S. Grothman (born July 3, 1955) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative from Wisconsin's 6th congressional district.

Grothman graduated from Homestead High School in Mequon in 1973.

In 1978, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a BBA degree.

He earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1983, was admitted to the bar, and became an attorney with a firm in West Bend, Wisconsin.

Grothman represented the 58th district in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1993 until 2005 and was vice chair of the Assembly's Republican caucus from 1999 to 2004.

Grothman was elected to the Wisconsin 58th Assembly District in a special election in December 1993 to succeed Mary Panzer, who had won a special election for the state senate.

He was reelected five times, from 1994 to 2002.

From 1999 to 2004, he was vice chairman of the Republican caucus.

In 2004, Grothman ran for the state senate seat in the 20th district, challenging Panzer, who had by then risen to state senate majority leader, in the Republican primary.

The district included the city of West Bend, other parts of Washington County, and parts of Fond du Lac, Dodge, Sheboygan, and Ozaukee Counties.

Running well to Panzer's right, Grothman won the nomination with 79% of the vote to Panzer's 21%.

He represented the 20th district in the Wisconsin Senate from 2005 to 2015, and was the assistant majority leader from 2011 to 2015.

From 2007 to 2008, Grothman was the Senate Minority Caucus Chair.

He was unopposed in the general election in the heavily Republican district, and reelected in 2008 and 2012.

He became the assistant Republican leader in 2009, serving as assistant minority leader from 2009 to 2010 and as assistant majority leader from 2011 to 2015.

Grothman was a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Grothman was a vocal proponent of SB11, a controversial bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker in early 2011.

He said he supported the so-called budget repair bill because it was fiscally responsible.

In a press interview, he said he did not "find it impressive" that over 70,000 protesters had marched on the Capitol.

During the protests, Grothman was cornered by almost 200 pro-union protesters yelling "Shame! Shame!"

outside the Capitol.

He said he was not concerned about violence at the time, adding, "They're loud, they'll give you the finger, and they yell at you, but I really think deep down inside they're just mostly college kids having fun, just like they're having fun sleeping with their girlfriends on air mattresses. That's the guts of that crowd."

He also called the protesters "a different breed of person" and "a bunch of slobs taking up the building."

During this time, Grothman advocated that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hire more business-friendly people.

In doing so, he went out of his way to single out one University of Wisconsin campus as a target: "Maybe you look to hire those people who know what the real world is like, rather than a recent graduate from UW-Stevens Point who doesn't know what the real world is like."

This was only days before he appeared at UW–Stevens Point with the Joint Finance Committee for a day of hearings on Walker's budget bill.

Grothman was subject to a recall effort in the spring of 2011, but the effort failed, collecting only 75% of the required signatures.

A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to his seat in 2014.

On April 3, 2014, Grothman announced he would run in that year's Republican primary for WI's 6th congressional district against 17-term incumbent Tom Petri.

He positioned himself well to Petri's right; in his campaign announcement he called Petri a "decent, genial person" who lacked the "sense of urgency" to put more curbs on "a federal government that seems to be out of control."

In the summer of 2014, Grothman moved to Campellsport, a suburb of Fond du Lac, which is in the 6th District.

In the general election, Grothman defeated the Democratic nominee, Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, with 57% of the vote to Harris's 41%.

Grothman was reelected over Democratic nominee Sarah Lloyd, getting 57% of the vote to Lloyd's 37%.

Grothman was reelected over Democratic nominee Dan Kohl, getting 55.5% of the vote to Kohl's 44.5%.

Grothman was reelected over Democratic nominee Jessica King, getting 59.23% of the vote to King's 40.72%.

Grothman was only opposed by Douglas Mullenix in the Republican primary, and ran unopposed in the general election.

The Washington Post has described Grothman as "a shambling, strident conservative with a Trumpian tell-it-like-it-is streak who typically votes with the House GOP leadership".

Grothman did not have to give up his state senate seat to run for Congress; state senators serve staggered four-year terms, and he was not up for reelection until 2016.

Shortly after Grothman entered the race, Petri dropped out.

Grothman's longtime home in West Bend was in the 5th District, represented by Jim Sensenbrenner, but his state senate district included much of the southeastern part of the 6th congressional district.