A Green Party candidate for Wisconsin Secretary of State says his Republican opponent's campaign impersonated him in text messages blasted out to voters over the weekend, just days before the November 3 election. Pete Karas filed a formal complaint Monday accusing Jay Schroeder's campaign of sending the messages, which featured Karas's image and urged recipients to vote for him.
According to the Wisconsin Examiner, Karas filed the complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, charging that Schroeder's campaign impersonated him. The texts reportedly carried an image of Karas, a headline reading “Not a duopoly candidate,” and a direct appeal to “Vote Pete Karas for Secretary of State on November 3.” A screenshot included in the complaint showed a reply confirming the opt-out, reading, “Jay for Wisconsin: You are now opted-out and will receive no further messages.”
Karas said he had nothing to do with the outreach. He told reporters his own campaign had not sent any text messages to voters, and that he first learned about the messages from journalists over the weekend. “I was distraught about that, obviously. It's really low of Jay [Schroeder] to do that,” Karas said, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
A Complaint Rooted in State Election Law
The complaint alleges that Schroeder's campaign violated Wisconsin law barring false representations about candidates intended or tending to affect voting. Under Wisconsin Statute § 12.05, no person may knowingly make or publish a false representation pertaining to a candidate or referendum meant to influence an election. The statute establishes the basis for Karas's allegation, though it does not by itself determine whether a violation actually occurred.
Karas argued the impersonation cuts against his campaign rather than helping it. “I think this hurts me more than it helps me,” he said, as reported by News From The States. He also pointed out that the messages referenced healthcare and education costs — topics he said he had deliberately avoided centering in his campaign because he views them as unrelated to the secretary of state's duties.
Democrat Zamarripa Weighs Legal Action
Karas said the texts appeared aimed at pulling votes away from Democratic candidate JoCasta Zamarripa, telling the Wisconsin Examiner that a message sent in his name would be a poor representation of his cause if its real goal was siphoning support from her. Zamarripa herself said the messages looked like a futile attempt by her Republican opponent to draw votes from her campaign, and said her team was considering whether to pursue legal action.
“This is absolutely deception and has no place in our elections,” Zamarripa said, adding that the episode amounted to a serious electioneering violation. “Wisconsin voters deserve to know who's behind the messages they get on their phone,” she said, arguing that her Republican opponent owed voters an explanation for the alleged conduct. Schroeder did not immediately respond to requests for comment by phone, email, and text on Monday, per the same report.
Three-Way Race Hinges on Election Administration
The dispute lands in the middle of a three-way general election contest featuring Schroeder, Zamarripa, and Karas, according to GMToday. Schroeder has built his platform almost entirely around eliminating the Wisconsin Elections Commission and moving election administration back into the secretary of state's office — a structure that existed before 1974, when that authority was moved out of the office. He has claimed the change would restore integrity to election administration, though other candidates, elections commission officials, and outside observers have rejected those assertions.
Zamarripa has staked out the opposite position. “Things are running smoothly, and I don't intend to ask for that to be put under the umbrella of the secretary of state,” she said, according to WPR. Schroeder has also complained that Wisconsin retains information about voters removed from the state registration list rather than deleting their records outright, even though state law does not allow deletion of voter records; voters whose records are converted to inactive are simply excluded from the lists used to build poll books. Don Millis, the Republican chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has said deleting voter records outright would remove a safeguard against voter fraud.
Zamarripa and other Democrats have separately warned that Karas's third-party bid could split the vote in ways that let Schroeder win with less than half the total, a concern raised in earlier Wisconsin Examiner reporting on the race. That dynamic adds another layer to Karas's complaint: whether the impersonation was designed to exploit exactly the vote-splitting scenario Democrats have feared. Karas said what Schroeder did was dishonest and lacks integrity, especially given that Schroeder has campaigned on the subject of election integrity himself.
