Pam Travis, one of the 10 Wisconsin Republicans who signed fake papers claiming to be a presidential elector in 2020, is now a full-time staffer on Sen. Ron Johnson’s reelection campaign, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has discovered. Travis has received more than $10,200 since April in pay from the campaign, as well as $3,500 in mileage reimbursements from May through July.
Johnson has been attempting to downplay his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and in fomenting the Big Lie for months now, following the revelation that he was actively attempting to hand fake elector documents from Wisconsin and Michigan to then-Vice President Mike Pence that afternoon, just ahead of the scheduled certification vote. A series of text messages between Sean Riley, an aide for the senator, and Chris Hodhson, a member of Pence’s staff, revealed that Johnson wanted to see Pence to hand over “Alternate slates of electors for [Michigan] and [Wisconsin] because archivist didn’t receive them.” To which Hodgson replied “Do not give that to him,” seeing as how Pence really didn’t want to be involved in the coup.
Travis’ name was on that slate of electors from Wisconsin, and now Travis is getting paid quite a bit of money from Johnson’s campaign, particularly considering she is just “a grassroots staffer answering phones,” as Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Johnson, told NBC News. “This is being blown way out of proportion.”
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Her “grassroots” support includes serving as the vice chair of the 7th Congressional District for the state party, the former treasurer of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women, and as secretary at the party’s state convention this May. But, yeah, she’s just a grassroots phone-answerer.
A “volunteer” if you will, according to Johnson campaign spokesman Ben Voelkel. He told the Journal Sentinel that Travis is a “dedicated volunteer who has been active in the Republican Party grassroots for years,” adding that the campaign is “proud to have her on the team.” Only a Republican “volunteer” would get paid thousands of dollars for answering phones—which she apparently does from multiple locations, given that mileage she racked up.
This just serves as a reminder that Johnson has been among the most avid Big Lie proponents, however hard he’s tried to distance himself from Jan. 6 and everything that led up to it. First he said he had “no idea” who was pushing the fake elector documents on him to give to Pence, then he had to admit that yes, it was him that was trying to intervene. But he insisted and still maintains that his involvement in the plot to overturn the election only lasted “a couple seconds.”
Paying one of the Big Lie fake electors to work for his campaign is a pretty good indication that nothing about his involvement with the coup plot was incidental. The man doesn’t deserve a seat in the U.S. Senate.
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