Category: State Election Denier
Role: Republican nominee for Wisconsin Secretary of State (2022)
Priority: P1 (Sought election control; advocated dismantling nonpartisan election administration)

Role

Amy Loudenbeck served 12 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly (2011-2023) representing districts 31 and 45 before running for Wisconsin Secretary of State in 2022. The race was the closest statewide contest in Wisconsin that year, with Loudenbeck losing to 54-year incumbent Democrat Doug La Follette by just 0.29% (approximately 7,400 votes) in the November 8, 2022 general election.

Background

Loudenbeck worked as a town supervisor in Clinton, Wisconsin, and held various positions at the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce before entering the state legislature. She represented Republican strongholds in south-central Wisconsin during her Assembly tenure. Her decision to run for Secretary of State represented an attempt to dramatically expand the traditionally ceremonial office’s role in Wisconsin election administration.

Documented Actions

1. Campaign to Dismantle Wisconsin Elections Commission (2022)

Evidence: Loudenbeck’s central campaign platform advocated for giving the Wisconsin Secretary of State a larger role in administering elections, including dismantling the nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). During the campaign, she stated she wanted the Secretary of State to take over election administration functions currently performed by WEC. La Follette argued that Wisconsin should keep the office out of administering elections, maintaining the state’s bipartisan commission model that had been in place since 2016.

SourcesWisconsin Public Radio, November 2022; Ballotpedia Wisconsin Secretary of State election pageLoudenbeck’s position aligned with broader Republican efforts to consolidate election control in Wisconsin following the 2020 presidential election. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, created after the Government Accountability Board was disbanded, operates with equal Democratic and Republican representation. Loudenbeck’s proposal would have replaced this bipartisan model with partisan control under an elected official.

Pattern: Attempted institutional capture of election administration; partisan control of nonpartisan election infrastructure

2. Extremely Close General Election Loss (November 2022)

Evidence: Despite winning the Republican primary unopposed and running in a favorable midterm environment for Republicans in Wisconsin, Loudenbeck lost the general election by the narrowest margin of any statewide race. Final results showed La Follette with 48.30% (1,268,748 votes) versus Loudenbeck’s 48.01% (1,261,306 votes). The remaining votes went to Libertarian and minor party candidates.

SourcesBallotpedia; Wisconsin Elections Commission certified resultsThe close margin—just 7,406 votes out of over 2.6 million cast—demonstrated both the polarized nature of Wisconsin elections and the effectiveness of Democratic messaging about protecting nonpartisan election administration. Loudenbeck underperformed other statewide Republican candidates despite La Follette’s age (91 at the time of the election) and his ceremonial role in the office.

Pattern: Voter rejection of election administration takeover in critical swing state

3. Assembly Record on Election Legislation

Evidence: During her 12-year tenure in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Loudenbeck voted on numerous election-related bills. While detailed vote records on specific election bills are not fully documented in available sources, her legislative service coincided with significant Republican efforts to modify Wisconsin’s election laws following the 2016 and 2020 elections.

SourcesWisconsin State Legislature biographical information; campaign coverageHer candidacy for Secretary of State was seen as part of a broader Republican strategy in Wisconsin to gain control over election administration in a state that has been decided by razor-thin margins in recent presidential elections (Biden won Wisconsin by 20,682 votes in 2020; Trump won by 22,748 votes in 2016).

Pattern: Legislative background supporting partisan election control

Pattern Analysis

Loudenbeck’s 2022 campaign represents a critical case study in the public-corruption-ombudsman skill’s “agency manipulation” category. Her explicit platform to dismantle Wisconsin’s bipartisan Elections Commission and transfer its functions to a partisan elected official exemplifies the pattern of seeking institutional control over election administration in battleground states.

Related profiles: diego-morales-profile (won similar SoS race with voter fraud allegations), kristina-karamo-profile (defeated MI SoS candidate), mark-finchem-profile (defeated AZ SoS candidate), brian-kemp-profile (GA governor who oversaw own 2018 election as SoS)

Related skills: tenth-amendment-legal-expert (state election administration), fifth-amendment-legal-expert (due process in election procedures), voting-rights-law-expert

Severity Assessment

Immediate harm: Moderate – defeated in general election; did not gain office Democratic erosion: High – sought to dismantle nonpartisan election administration in critical swing state Authoritarian marker: Institutional capture of election oversight; partisan control of previously nonpartisan function

Accountability Status

Current status: Defeated candidate; left Wisconsin State Assembly in January 2023 Legal exposure: None documented Public accountability: Voter rejection by 7,400-vote margin despite strong Republican performance in other Wisconsin races; margin suggests voter concern about election administration takeover

Cross-References

Skills: public-corruption-ombudsman, voting-rights-law-expert, tenth-amendment-legal-expert, fifth-amendment-legal-expert

Related profiles: diego-morales-profile, kristina-karamo-profile, mark-finchem-profile, jim-marchant-profile, kim-crockett-profile

Topics: secretary of state elections, Wisconsin Elections Commission, election administration, partisan control of elections, 2022 midterm elections, swing state elections, bipartisan election oversight, voter suppression infrastructure, election denier candidates

Investigative trail pointers (public records)

Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.

Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.

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For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

Loudenbeck’s central campaign platform was to dismantle Wisconsin’s bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission — the body created in 2016 to replace the Government Accountability Board after Republicans wanted partisan control of election administration. WEC has equal Democratic and Republican representation. Loudenbeck wanted to transfer WEC’s election administration functions to the partisan-elected Secretary of State’s office. She ran in a favorable midterm environment for Republicans in Wisconsin, went unopposed in the Republican primary, and lost to a 91-year-old incumbent Democrat by 7,400 votes out of 2.6 million cast — the closest statewide race in Wisconsin that year.

Here’s a question worth sitting with: Wisconsin’s Elections Commission was deliberately designed with equal Democratic and Republican representation so that neither party could unilaterally control election administration in a state that has been decided by razor-thin margins in presidential elections. Loudenbeck proposed replacing that bipartisan model with a system controlled by a single elected partisan official. If a Democratic candidate in a swing state had proposed dismantling a bipartisan election commission and replacing it with a partisan official she would control — would you support that proposal? The structure of the institution matters, independent of which party would benefit.

Sources

• Ballotpedia: Wisconsin Secretary of State election, 2022 (https://www.ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Secretary_of_State_election,_2022)
• Ballotpedia: Amy Loudenbeck (https://www.ballotpedia.org/Amy_Loudenbeck)
• Wisconsin Public Radio: “Doug La Follette and Amy Loudenbeck are neck and neck in bid for Wisconsin Secretary of State” (November 2022)
• Wikipedia: 2022 Wisconsin Secretary of State election

Last Updated: May 11, 2026
Profile Status: Defeated candidate
Next Review: Annually