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Wisconsin Recall Elections Set For June

In Wisconsin, "state elections officials ordered a set of historic recall elections Friday, making [Republican] Scott Walker the third governor in the nation to face a recall and Rebecca Kleefisch [R] the first lieutenant governor to face one," Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel reports.

Because there will be a Democratic primary on May 8 to see who contests Walker, the general election will be on June 5.

As NPR.org's Liz Halloran has reported, recall politics has overshadowed next Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in Wisconsin.

Marti Mikkelson of Milwawukee's WUWM reported for NPR in January about the recall effort. "Talk of recalling the governor began nearly a year ago," she said, "after he signed a bill into law that strips most public unions of collective bargaining rights."

The Associated Press notes that "have been only two successful gubernatorial recalls in U.S. history, against California Gov. Gray Davis [D] in 2003 and North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier [R] in 1921."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.