A Macomb County lawmaker, who embraced the conspiracy theories that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, announced today that he is running for a vacant state Senate seat created by Pete Lucido, who was elected as the new Macomb County prosecutor in November.

State Rep. Doug Wozniak, a Shelby Township Republican, said in a press release that he is a small business owner and attorney who “already understands the law and its processes to the residents throughout Macomb County.”

A former Shelby Township board member, Wozniak was one of 15 of the 80 GOP legislators in Lansing who endorsed a legal brief in December supporting Trump’s “Hail Mary” attempt to upend an election the former president said was “rigged,” despite lower courts repeatedly rejecting his claims of voter fraud.

Eventually, more than 60 judges ruled against various pro-Trump claims, including numerous Republican judges and some Trump appointees.

First elected to the state House in 2018, Wozniak has not distinguished himself during his 25 months in office, other than his embrace of the counterfeit claims of Trump winning the election – a conspiracy theory promoted by fringe right-wing groups who engaged in the Jan. 6 violent rampage of the U.S. Capitol.

The lawsuit, originating in Texas, that Wozniak endorsed called for a rejection of Electoral College votes from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia – four key states that Biden won – due to allegations of “rampant lawlessness.”

That suit was tossed out. When the bipartisan Michigan Board of Canvassers certified the state’s election, Biden won Michigan by 154,188 votes.

Among those GOP lawmakers who declined to sign a letter claiming Trump was the victim of election rigging were then-House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, even though they rendered nationwide suspicion when they traveled to Washington to discuss the election outcome with Trump at the White House last month.

The special election scheduled for Nov. 2, 2021, will take place in the state Senate’s 8th District, which comprises most of north Macomb and communities located on the Lake St. Clair shoreline.

The district (previously known as the 12th Senate district) has quite an infamous history. In 2001, it was represented by Dave Jaye, another Shelby Township Republican, who became the first senator in Michigan history to be expelled from office by his colleagues (in a near-unanimous vote) after he engaged in lawbreaking behavior, including allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.

Lucido, yet another Shelby Township Republican, who represented the district for six years was accused last year of sexually harassing three women in the state Capitol.

Known as a bombastic and belligerent lawmaker by his critics in the Capitol, the Senate GOP leadership found Lucido guilty of “inappropriate workplace behavior” and he was removed as chairman of a powerful Senate committee.