| Elijah Behnke | |
| State: | Wisconsin |
| State Assembly: | Wisconsin |
| District: | 89th |
| Term Start: | May 11, 2021 |
| Predecessor: | John Nygren |
| Party: | Republican |
| Birth Date: | 15 February 1983 |
| Birth Place: | Oconto Falls, Wisconsin |
| Residence: | Pensaukee, Wisconsin |
| Occupation: | business owner, politician |
| Education: | Toccoa Falls College (AA) |
Elijah Behnke (born February 15, 1983) is an American small business owner and Republican politician. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 89th Assembly district since April 2021. Following the 2024 redistricting, he has announced he will run for re-election in the redrawn 6th Assembly district.
Behnke was born in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, and raised on his parents' nearby farm. He worked on the farm through his childhood and graduated from Oconto High School in 2001.[1] He went on to attend bible college in northeast Georgia.
In 2006, he returned to Wisconsin and started working for his mother's cleaning business. After a year, he started his own cleaning business, Eschalon Cleaning LLC.[2] In addition to his cleaning business, Behnke operates a hobby farm and is a ministry leader in his church.[3]
In December 2020, just after the 2020 election, state representative John Nygren announced he would resign from office. Within days, Behnke announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination to succeed Nygren in the Assembly.[4] In his campaign, Behnke stated that one of his motivations in running for office was to seek relief for small business owners like himself who had been harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant public safety measures.[1] In the Republican primary, Behnke was endorsed by neighboring State Senator André Jacque and Oconto County Sheriff Todd Skarban, as well as other state Republican interest groups, such as Wisconsin Family Action, Pro Life Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Right to Life.[5] Behnke topped the five-person Republican primary field with nearly 45% of the vote.[6] He went on to defeat Democrat Karl Jaeger in the April special election.[7] [8]
A recording of Behnke speaking in the Wisconsin State Capitol emerged in January 2022. Behnke referred to fabricated claims of Democrat electoral fraud, and urged his listeners: "Let's cheat like the Democrats do."[9]
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, Governor Evers’ called for a special session to defend reproductive rights in Wisconsin to introduce and pass AB 713 and AB 106, which would have protected the right for women to have a say over their bodies. Despite bipartisan support for legal access to abortion from both Wisconsin Democrats and Republicans, Elijah Behnke and other Republicans in the Legislature gaveled in and gaveled out at the special session without protecting women's rights and leaving 1.3 million Wisconsin women of reproductive age without access to a legal abortion.[10]
Following the 2024 redistricting act, which abolished the decade-old Republican gerrymander, Behnke was drawn out of his former district and drawn into the new 4th Assembly district, where he would have faced an incumbent vs incumbent primary against 4th district incumbent David Steffen. Rather than running in this district, Behnke has announced he will relocate to instead challenge incumbent Peter Schmidt in a Republican primary in the 6th Assembly district.[11]
| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| Republican Primary, February 16, 2021| colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;"| General Election, April 6, 2021 (unofficial results)[7]