On the Issues
FIGHTING FOR A SAFER WISCONSIN
As Attorney General, Josh’s top priority is public safety. Josh is a former federal prosecutor, and his administration has investigated and/or prosecuted some of the most serious offenses in the state, including homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, internet crimes against children, and drug trafficking.
Throughout his time as AG, Josh has consistently advocated for increased funding for public safety. He supported the addition of more than 70 new Assistant District Attorneys in the last two state budgets and has advocated for more funding for the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Josh has also advocated for strengthening Wisconsin’s system for pretrial detention.
And Josh knows we need to do more to keep our communities safe. In November of last year, he announced Safer Wisconsin, a comprehensive plan to invest $115 million into public safety. Safer Wisconsin would invest in community policing and prosecution, law enforcement officer recruitment and retention, violent crime prosecutors and investigators at Wisconsin DOJ, violence prevention programs, victim services, treatment and diversion programs, a hate crime hotline, regional drug prosecutors, and mental health crisis response teams.
Josh believes we need to take steps that can help keep firearms out of the hands of people who have been shown to be a danger to themselves or others, and he has repeatedly called for the passage of common-sense gun-safety legislation, and included it in Safer Wisconsin. Josh supports expanding background checks, creating extreme risk protection orders, prohibiting ghost guns, and increasing the felony classification for repeat felon-in-possession and straw purchasing offenses. After the Wisconsin Supreme Court concluded that some individuals who had committed domestic violence were not prohibited from possessing firearms, Josh called for the state legislature to act.
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SECURING JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
Josh has made it a priority to strengthen Wisconsin’s response to sexual assault. His administration ensured that a review was conducted of every case in which the testing of a backlogged sexual assault kit identified DNA from a potential perpetrator, leading to criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Josh fought for more than two years to get legislation passed that will help prevent a future backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Wisconsin. Under Josh’s leadership, Wisconsin DOJ launched a statewide sexual assault kit tracking system. Josh’s administration is also conducting Wisconsin’s first independent, statewide review of clergy and faith leader abuse.
COMBATING THE DRUG EPIDEMIC
The opioid epidemic continues to impact families across the country, and it has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the increased prevalence of fentanyl. Josh believes we must fight the epidemic through accountability, treatment, and prevention.
Under Josh’s leadership, Wisconsin DOJ filed suit against Purdue Pharma L.P., Purdue Pharma Inc., and Richard S. Sackler and joined multi-state investigations into opioid distributors. As a result of a settlement that AGs and county and local governments reached with three opioid distributors and an opioid manufacturer, Wisconsin has secured hundreds of millions of dollars to support the fight against the opioid epidemic. Josh’s administration has also investigated and prosecuted drug dealers, putting those who sell dangerous narcotics behind bars.
Josh believes we need to increase access to treatment for substance use disorder. He has supported expanding the Treatment Alternatives and Diversion program, and his Safer Wisconsin plan calls for an additional $15 million in funding for that program. In addition, Wisconsin’s Drug Take Back program has consistently been a national leader during Josh’s time as AG.
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS SAFER
Every student in Wisconsin should be safe at school, and throughout Josh’s time as Attorney General, the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety has worked to make Wisconsin’s schools safer. This work has included launching the Speak Up, Speak Out program, a statewide tip line for school safety threats used by schools across the state that has resulted in professionals connecting with students when concerns have arisen, helping to keep students safe. During Josh's time as AG, the Office of School Safety has also created regional crisis response teams; issued the Wisconsin Comprehensive School Security Framework and Wisconsin School Threat Assessment Protocol, which provides guidance for keeping schools safe; and provided schools safety trainings across Wisconsin.
In addition, Josh has advocated for long-term funding to keep the Office of School Safety open, increasing funding for mental health programs in schools, and common-sense gun-safety measures.
SUPPORTING LAW ENFORCEMENT
Law enforcement officers protect public safety and save lives in communities across the state, often while putting their own safety at risk. Josh’s administration has worked with law enforcement agencies across the state on a wide range of issues that impact law enforcement officers and public safety. Josh supports increasing funding for law enforcement and ensuring that benefits for law enforcement officers account for the dangers inherent in their profession.
Josh’s Safer Wisconsin proposal would invest millions in community policing and officer recruitment, retention, and wellness programs, as well as increase funding for law enforcement training. Josh supported duty death benefit legislation and legislation that makes it easier for officers with post-traumatic stress disorder to obtain worker’s compensation benefits. He supports full collective bargaining rights for law enforcement officers and other public servants. In addition, Josh’s administration launched a new Officer Wellness and Peer Support Program.
Josh has also advocated for policies that address impacts the pandemic has had on law enforcement officers. Early in the pandemic, when there was a need to increase the supply of personal protective equipment and other supplies, Josh led a coalition of 16 AGs in calling for the Defense Production Act to be used to address supply shortages. Josh called out the removal from COVID-related legislation of language that would have helped front-line workers who contracted COVID get worker’s compensation benefits and advocated for the legislature to provide that protection. He also joined a bipartisan coalition of AGs from across the country in supporting the Safeguarding America’s First Responders Act, legislation that makes federal death and disability benefits more accessible for public safety officers and their family members when an officer dies or becomes permanently disabled from COVID-19.
PRESERVING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES
We all should have access to safe, clean drinking water, and we must take action to address the climate crisis. With Josh as AG, the Wisconsin Department of Justice has once again been serious about protecting our natural resources.
Josh’s administration has gotten accountability from polluters. Josh withdrew the prior AG’s opinion concluding that DNR could not consider the cumulative impacts of all high capacity wells when making decisions regarding permits for high capacity wells. With Josh and Governor Evers in office, DNR, represented by Wisconsin DOJ, changed its position in cases about that issue and about DNR’s authority to set an animal unit maximum and include off-site groundwater monitoring conditions in issuing a permit to a CAFO, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of the pro-environmental side in both of those cases. Moreover, Josh’s administration has stood up for federal protections against air pollution and climate change, for clean water, and for endangered species.
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FIGHTING FOR SAFE AND LEGAL ABORTION ACCESS
Women in Wisconsin are less free, less equal, and less safe than they were before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to overrule Roe v. Wade. Josh is a leader in the fight in Wisconsin to restore access to safe and legal abortion and to minimize the harm from Dobbs.
In the wake of the Dobbs decision, Josh filed a lawsuit seeking a ruling that Wisconsin’s draconian 19th century criminal abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother is not in effect. He has called on the Republican-led state legislature to repeal that criminal abortion ban. He also won’t use any Wisconsin Department of Justice resources to investigate or prosecute anyone for alleged violations of that ban, and he’s called for DAs to use their discretion not to enforce that ban.
There are stark differences between Josh’s views and those of the Republicans running for AG on this issue. While Josh has stood up for reproductive freedom, the leading Republican candidates for AG celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe and have attacked Josh for challenging the enforceability of the criminal abortion ban in court and for his commitment not to use Wisconsin DOJ resources to investigate or prosecute alleged violations of that ban. Wisconsin voters will have a clear choice on reproductive freedom in the AG’s race this fall.
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EXPANDING ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE AND IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH
Josh supports expanding access to affordable health insurance coverage. He is an advocate for Medicaid expansion and, as Attorney General, has worked to protect public health.
Before Josh was elected Attorney General, Wisconsin was a leader of a lawsuit that sought to have the Affordable Care Act invalidated. Josh’s administration withdrew Wisconsin from that lawsuit and joined an amicus brief that argued that the ACA should not be struck down. Josh took action to identify steps that can help repair Wisconsin’s broken system for emergency detention, working to bring together a coalition that made several recommendations for reform. Josh’s administration also joined a multistate investigation into JUUL’s marketing and sales practices and multistate antitrust suits against generic drug manufacturers.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY
Josh is protecting Wisconsin’s democracy.
Josh’s administration successfully defeated an effort to deactivate tens of thousands of voter registrations, with Josh personally arguing the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Prior to the 2020 election, he joined with other AGs in challenging changes made by the U.S. Postal Service that could have prevented absentee ballots from being received in time to be counted, and he made clear that voter intimidation is against the law.
Following the 2020 election, the Wisconsin Department of Justice successfully defended the outcome of the presidential election in Wisconsin against multiple legal challenges. Josh called Donald Trump’s attempt to have numerous votes thrown out in Wisconsin’s two largest counties a “disgraceful Jim Crow strategy for mass disenfranchisement of voters.” Josh has also called for Michael Gableman’s so-called investigation into the 2020 elections to be shut down, and Josh’s administration is challenging subpoenas issued in connection with that investigation.
Josh and other swing state AGs led a coalition of 22 AGs in calling for Congress to pass legislation protecting democracy. Their August 2021 letter states, “To safeguard our democracy, it is vital that Congress act promptly—including, if necessary, to reform the filibuster—to pass legislation protecting against both voter suppression and election subversion.” Josh also supports the creation of a nonpartisan redistricting process in Wisconsin.
