Abortion

Kleefisch supports Wisconsin's 1849 abortion ban that went into effect in 2022 after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision by the United States Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. The law bans abortion in all instances except to save the life of the mother.^[6][7] Kleefisch believes that abortion should be illegal in all other instances, including after rape or incest,^[8] or to protect the health of the mother.^[9] She also wrote^[10] that she agrees with Sharron Angle that raped women should "turn lemons into lemonade" by having their rapist's child.^[4]

Marriage rights

Kleefisch has indicated support for same-sex marriage, acknowledging her views have changed since she compared same-sex marriage to marrying a dog or an inanimate object in 2010, comments she later called a "poor choice of words."^{[11][12][13][14][15]} By 2022, Kleefisch said "I am in the same place that I would say as a vast majority of Wisconsinites and Americans are. My opinion has changed…gay marriage will be legal when I am governor of Wisconsin."^[16]

Health care

Kleefisch opposes the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and has supported efforts to repeal the legislation. She has called the ACA "an abomination."^[17]

Other positions

Kleefisch criticized Wisconsin's progressive income tax system and has promised "transformational income tax reform" if she were to become governor. She suggested eliminating taxes on retirement income.^[18]

Kleefisch is open to paid family leave, saying "we need to make sure that moms and dads have time to bond with their babies. That's absolutely something that I would look at as governor."^[19]

In 2009, Kleefisch said that there is "no consensus that people have caused climate change."^[20]

In 2012, when she faced a recall election, Kleefisch criticized the recall process, arguing that it has become a "spectacle" and were designed only to recall officials guilty of grave wrongdoing, rather than used as a way to resolve policy disputes. In 2021, however, Kleefisch championed the recall election of four Mequon-Thiensville School District over policy disputes.^[21] In 2022, she proposed removing some election-related powers from the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and transferring them to the state Department of Justice, headed by the elected state attorney general.^[22]

In 2020, she praised Donald Trump's trade policies, as well as his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[23] After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and made false claims of fraud while refusing to concede, she defended Trump's false claims of fraud.^[24]

In 2021, she called for a ban on sanctuary cities, as well as a ban on the teaching of critical race theory in public schools.^[25]

2012 recall

Following a contentious collective bargaining dispute in 2011, an effort began to recall Walker and Kleefisch. After examining petitions, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board determined there were more than 800,000 valid signatures to hold a recall election.^[34] In the June 5, 2012 recall election, Walker and Kleefisch were retained in office. Kleefisch is the only lieutenant governor in the history of any state in the United States to face recall election and ultimately survive a recall.^[35]

2022 gubernatorial campaign

In September 2021, Kleefisch announced that she would seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Wisconsin in the following year's election.^[40] In her announcement, she likened herself to Donald Trump.^[25] She began her campaign by criticizing the leadership of incumbent Democratic Governor Tony Evers and attacking his response to the 2020 Kenosha unrest.^[41] In October 2021, she told Republicans that they needed to "hire mercenaries" and engage in "ballot harvesting" (a practice she has called for banning) to help her win the 2022 race.^[42] In November 2021, she said that a vaccine requirement for poll workers in Wisconsin was intended to prevent Republicans from becoming poll workers and thus hide wrongdoing.^[43] Kleefisch recently sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission, alleging that they broke the law during the 2020 election.^[44]

During her campaign, Kleefisch initially recognized that Biden won the 2020 election but by early 2022, she declined to take a position on the matter.^[45][46] In April 2022, Kleefisch said that the election was "rigged."^[47] On decertifying the results of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Kleefisch said it is "not constitutionally possible."^[48]

Kleefisch was defeated in the Republican primary by Tim Michels, who went on to lose the general election to incumbent Evers.