Hundreds of citizens of Washington County, who largely opposed naming County Trunk K after Charlie Kirk, wanted to know why that hugely controversial proposition came to life in Washington County.
County supervisors received literally of hundreds calls and emails in opposition to the renaming of the road and spending $50,000 on signage. More than 120 people showed up at the county board executive committee almost all in opposition.
In the face of the overwhelming opposition, the five members of the committee took a duck. They voted to send the resolution and its funding to the full county board April 21 without any recommendation.
They refused to allow pubic commentary at their meeting, although they could’ve done so. Several citizens loudly protested anyway.
Claiming the moral high ground, Supervisor Denis Keller essentially told them to shut up.
After the meeting Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said the two resolutions were written by the county attorney. But the attorney just drafts legislation; he doesn’t initiate it.
Josh Schoemann
Schoemann was clearly a leader along with several supervisors to get the naming proposal moving. He is an evangelical Christian who started his campaign for governor in 2025 by quoting passages from the Bible. Kirk was a combative Christian Nationalist who had positioned himself as a facilitator of civil discourse. But he was not a benign commentator. He made statements that only be construed as antisemitic and anti-minority.
Christian Nationalism puts white males at the top of American politics at the expense of women and people of other religions and faiths.
Schoemann welcomed a robust response to his Kirk project as healthy for American democracy. But it is a puzzle to understand why he initiated an honor for a controversial national figure in the first place. Kirk was not from Wisconsin.
There are plenty of Wisconsin luminaries who could be honored with the naming of a street, such as Bernard Ziegler and Carl pick, entrepreneurs who started several major businesses in the county; Rueben Small and Kenneth Miller, who served with distinction as county board chairmen; and as suggested by several citizens, Jason Stoltz, the winner of two gold medals and a silver at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The $50,000 was never a big deal. Several citizens suggested using it to fill potholes. Kelling suggested public donations for the signage.
Naming schools, buildings and roads is a tricky proposition. As examples, Charles Lindburg and Cesar Chavez, once heroes, have been discredited as history has revealed them to be less than what they once appeared.
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. Charlie Kirk did not deserve to be assassinated for exercising his free speech. His murder was anti-American.
Neither did Minneapolis protesters Good and Pretti deserve to be murdered by ICE thugs for exercising their rights to protest. Nor did Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.
Finally, what do we make of where Schoemann stands today in Wisconsin politics?
The quick withdrawal of Schoemann from this year’s wide open governor’s contest is not likely to be his last quest for higher office in Wisconsin.
Once Rep. Tom Tiffany got the endorsement of Donald Trump for the nomination for governor, Schoemann, who also sought the Trump blessing, dropped out in deference to the congressman from the northern part of the state. His decision was pragmatic; Tiffany had better name recognition statewide and was pulling in far more political contributions.
There is one other consideration that Schoemann undoubtedly considered. As an office holder in the WOW counties, the bastion of Republican voters, he would be a complement to Tiffany, who is not well known in these parts. It makes sense that Tiffany would ask Schoemann to be his running mate for Lieutenant Governor.
They are both Trumpers through and through. Schoemann’s biggest political profile is all about smaller government. He likes to divest, which is essentially what he did in Washington County with the old courthouse, the Washington County – Samaritan Health Center, several park parcels and lately his virtual give-away of the former campus of UW – Washington County.
In fairness, Schoemann does have one forward-looking policy in his push for affordable housing at the county level.
That forward posture stands in contrast to his retreat from a “social capital,” his words when he engineered a solution in a minimalist sale to a small evangelical church on the county-owned UWWC campus.
Summing it up, don’t be surprised if Schoemann is back on the campaign trail with Tiffany as his running mate this fall.
