About
Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wisc.) was first sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3, 2021, representing Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District. He is ran for reelection in 2022 without Trump’s endorsement and easily won in the state’s most Republican district. Earlier in the year, 10 Wisconsin citizens filed a lawsuit to prevent him from running for reelection based on his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection, but a judge dismissed the case as “procedurally improper.”
Before Fitzgerald was elected to Congress, he served in the Wisconsin state Senate from 1995–2020. During his 25 years in the state legislature, he served as the majority leader, the minority leader, co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Finance and chairman of the Senate Corrections Committee. During that time, he was a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate-funded bill mill that generates conservative legislation at the state level.
In Congress, Fitzgerald is a member of the House Republican Study Committee, a caucus of congressional conservatives, and the newly established Election Integrity Caucus. He readily joined Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, objecting to the certification of Biden’s Electoral College win and voting against both impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection and establishing a special House committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, among other measures.
January 6, 2021
- Just hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Fitzgerald joined 146 other congressional Republicans in refusing to certify Biden’s win of the 2020 presidential election.
- Fitzgerald may be tied to the Wisconsin fake electors scheme. “All indications are that Congressman Fitzgerald saw fit to provide space in the Capitol for a slate of 10 Republicans purporting to be the authorized presidential electors from Wisconsin to meet and produce fraudulent documents claiming (falsely) that the 2020 Election in Wisconsin was won by Donald Trump,” Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson (D) alleged.
- On Jan. 13, 2021, Fitzgerald opposed impeaching Trump for his role in instigating the attack on the Capitol and fanning the flames once it was underway. In a prepared statement, he wrote: “It is ridiculous and irresponsible for Speaker Pelosi to rush an impeachment through… without the results of an investigation or substantive congressional debate on the issue…. [She] has turned this process into political theater that will not help the nation move forward.”
- On May 19, 2021, Fitzgerald voted against establishing a national commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol. He justified his decision by writing, “While many questions remain surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, Speaker Pelosi’s proposal for a Commission was partisan right out of the gate and ultimately falls short of a comprehensive study.”
- On the first-year anniversary of the insurrection, Fitzgerald took aim at President Biden and Vice President Harris in a tweet, saying: “The President created more division, not unity, in his speech today. The VP shamelessly likened Jan. 6th to Sept. 11th and Pearl Harbor—both attacks that left thousands of Americans murdered.”