RON JOHNSON

FLORENCE, Wis. — A recent Marquette University Law School poll shows U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson with an approval rating of 36% among Wisconsin voters, but at a town hall Sunday in Florence the number may have been closer to 100%.

Nearly 200 people filled Encore on Central for the 1 1/2-hour event as Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican up for reelection in November, railed against “the radical left.”

Johnson has come under fire for backing unproven COVID-19 treatments and questioning the need for vaccines, but he was unapologetic Sunday, blaming the nation’s pandemic failures on the “COVID cartel.”

There is corruption not only in President Joe Biden’s administration but also in federal health agencies, he said. “They can’t afford to be proven wrong.”

The senator said he “hopes and prays” COVID-19 vaccines are safe in the long run, but “no one can tell you” if that’s the case.

The media and Big Tech giants are compliant in covering up the truth about the pandemic, he said.

Thirty-five seats in the U.S. Senate will be decided in November, with the Wisconsin race among seven considered toss-ups by Real Clear Politics.

Johnson, who is seeking a third term, has become a lightning rod for what many view as anti-science positions, and for downplaying the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The latter subject never came up Sunday.

Johnson, meanwhile, cast blame on Biden, former President Barack Obama and Democrats as a whole for failing to “unify and heal” the nation.

“We’re the ones who want to see the ‘United’ States of America — not them,” he told the Florence gathering.

In response to a question from an employee at the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center in Iron Mountain, Johnson said it’s wrong for the Veterans Affairs Department to mandate vaccines.

Throughout the event, no one challenged Johnson’s positions, apart from a man who advocated U.S. neutrality toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Johnson said he believes the U.S. shouldn’t send troops to Ukraine or enforce a no-fly zone but should otherwise provide military and other aid.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin never moved against Ukraine with President Trump in office,” Johnson said in his opening remarks, drawing applause.

The Democratic candidates for Johnson’s seat are Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, Milwaukee Bucks executive-on-leave Alex Lasry, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson and Millennial Action Project founder Steven Olikara.

Johnson suggested Democrats will try to make the November election a referendum on student loan forgiveness in an attempt to attract younger voters. While sympathetic to people with heavy debt loads, he said any outright forgiveness would be “grotesquely unfair.”

Voters, he predicted, will be mindful of “40-year high inflation” and “completely open borders” in November. Donald Trump, Johnson said, had nearly secured the Southern border as president and would have created a functioning immigration system by now had he been reelected.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, which supports liberal migration policies, the overall number of admissions — both on a permanent and temporary basis — declined only somewhat during most of the Trump years, remaining largely in line with broader trends that predated it.