Robin Vos

Robin Joseph Vos (born July 5, 1968) is an American businessman and Republican politician and the 79th speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving in that role since 2013.

Vos was born in 1968, in Burlington, Wisconsin, in Racine County.

He graduated from Burlington High School in 1986.

Vos attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he studied political science and public relations.

While at Whitewater, he roomed with Reince Priebus, who later became chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and White House chief of staff.

In 1989, Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson appointed Vos as a student representative on the University of Wisconsin board of regents.

Vos graduated in 1991.

After graduation, Vos worked as a legislative assistant to state representatives Jim Ladwig and Bonnie Ladwig.

In 1994, Vos was elected to the Racine county board of supervisors.

He remained on the board for the next 10 years.

Also in 1994, Vos worked as district director for U.S. representative Mark Neumann of Wisconsin.

In 1996 Vos purchased the RoJos Popcorn Company in Burlington.

In 2004, Vos ran for the Wisconsin state assembly to succeed Ladwig in the 63rd district.

He was unopposed in the 2004 primary and general elections.

He has been a member of the Assembly since 2005, representing most of the southern half of Racine County.

Vos is also president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

After Republicans won full control of state government in Wisconsin in 2010, Vos rose to prominence pushing the controversial budget restructuring act alongside governor Scott Walker.

Vos came to prominence for his role in shepherding legislation to weaken bargaining rights and labor unions in Wisconsin while Scott Walker was governor, which culminated in the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election.

The law curtailed collective bargaining rights and public education funding in Wisconsin, and led to massive protests around the state, culminating in the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election.

Vos has been speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly since 2013, retaining Republican control of the chamber through heavily gerrymandered maps.

During the governorship of Tony Evers, a Democrat, Vos has sought to curb the governor's powers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vos blocked Evers's efforts to increase the safety and accessibility of elections, sought to hinder public health measures to mitigate the pandemic, such as mask mandates, and opposed vaccine requirements by private businesses.

In 2013, Vos was elected speaker of the Wisconsin assembly.

Between 2014 and 2018 he received about $57,000 in travel and perks from lobbyists and organizations.

He said he was certain he had followed ethics rules with his travel.

Vos supports deregulating the payday loan industry.

He opposes Medicaid expansion and spearheaded Republican efforts to block Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin.

Vos argued against Medicaid, saying "Trapping people in the life of poverty is not something that there's ever the right amount of money to do."

In 2016 Vos endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination for president.

After Rubio dropped out of the race, Vos endorsed Ted Cruz.

In August 2016, Vos wrote in a column on a conservative website that he was "embarrassed" that Donald Trump was "leading our ticket" as the presumptive Republican nominee; the next month, Vos said that he was "proud" to support Trump's candidacy due to his belief that Trump would energize Republican voters.

In February 2019 Vos defended Brian Hagedorn, a judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, amid reports that Hagedorn had founded a school in 2016 that allowed for the expulsion of students and faculty if they were gay.

After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump refused to concede while making claims of fraud, Vos appropriated $680,000 in taxpayer money to fund an investigation by Michael Gableman into fraud in the 2020 election.

Gableman's appointment came a day after Trump had accused Vos of participating in a coverup of the election.

In March 2022, Gableman released a report rife with false claims of fraud and conspiracy theories.

Vos fired Gableman in August 2022, three days after a primary election in which Gableman had endorsed Vos's challenger.

At the time of his firing, Gableman's investigation had already cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $1,000,000, but the costs continued to rise, climbing close to $2.5 million, as lawsuits related to the practices of his investigation continued more than six months later.

In 2020, his popcorn business, Robin J. Vos Enterprises, received more than $150,000 in coronavirus relief from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Vos has an ownership stake of $4.8 million in rental properties in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

In 2021, Vos led Republican efforts in the Wisconsin legislature to redirect COVID-19 relief payments so that they would go directly to landlords, such as himself, rather than renters.