Turning Point Action member used QAnon supporter’s podcast to recruit poll workers in Milwaukee

The vice chair of the Milwaukee County GOP also advocated impeachment of the state’s top election official

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

QAnon supporter and election denier Melody Jennings hosted a member of the youth-focused right-wing group Turning Point Action, who urged her show’s viewers to become poll workers and get involved with the Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Republican Party’s “Election Integrity Committee.” He also encouraged viewers to get the state’s top elections official removed from office.

Brett Galaszewski was the field representative for the Turning Point USA affiliate’s operations in the Midwest during the 2022 election cycle and is now a vice chair of the Milwaukee County GOP. 

On November 8, Galaszewski appeared on The Coach Mel Show, which is streamed on Rumble and hosted by Jennings, a QAnon supporter who participated in election denial efforts during the 2022 elections by coordinating attempts to intimidate voters at ballot drop boxes. Jennings even took credit for armed men who staked out drop boxes in Arizona and has been involved with True the Vote, an election denial group with extensive links to QAnon.

During the interview, Galaszewski’s affiliations with both Turning Point Action and the county Republican Party were mentioned and he said that “we just started for the very first time in our existence as a county party an Election Integrity Committee.” 

In the interview, he also admitted that recruiting poll workers for the committee was “a big part of why” he appeared on Jennings’ podcast, telling viewers that “a member of our Election Integrity Committee team will call you with the next steps” to become a poll worker after “signing up with us.”

From the November 8, 2023, edition of The Coach Mel Show, streamed on Rumble

MELODY JENNINGS (HOST): Get everybody in there to do this and go see how you can save the Wisconsin election coming up. I mean, if we do this in every state, guys — there’s so many things that if we do this and if we do that, but right now, this is something that you can do. So, hey, tell us where, Brett, tell us where people need to go to apply. Is it an application process?

BRETT GALASZEWSKI (TURNING POINT ACTION): Yes. So the first step though is signing up with us, and then a member of our Election Integrity Committee team will call you with the next steps, and there are specific municipality rules that apply to you depending on where you are in Milwaukee County. … But to become a poll worker, those go directly to me, and we’ve been reaching out to folks within 24-48 hours, right away. I mean, I took some calls already this morning from folks who had never poll-worked before but are hearing about the impact that they can make for a minimal time commitment. And they’re all in.

During the interview, Galaszewski also urged “those listening tonight” who “have friends and family in Wisconsin” to “get on the phone this evening” and urge them to contact their state representative to support impeachment of Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s nonpartisan top elections official, saying efforts like that are “driven by people who view podcasts like this.”

From the November 8, 2023, edition of The Coach Mel Show, streamed on Rumble

BRETT GALASZEWSKI (TURNING POINT ACTION): And specifically here in Wisconsin, we’re in a big battle right now trying to remove our elections administrator, the head of our elections, Meagan Wolfe. She runs the Wisconsin Elections Commission. She was removed by our state Senate a couple weeks ago. It’s still a pending legal battle, now impeachment is on the floor from our Republican-controlled state House. So this is a whole mess that, you know, you’d think it’d be as easy as state Senate removes her, she’s out. No, not so fast. We have a Democratic governor and a Democratic attorney general who are quick to put the kibosh on it and say, “Absolutely not. Wait a minute, you didn’t go through the proper channels.” So, we can unravel that a lot more in a little bit but long story short, the work that we do here in Wisconsin is going to determine what happens here in Arizona, in Georgia, in Florida, and Pennsylvania, and the rest of these major swing states are going to be looking at Wisconsin to set the bar, not only for activism, but how do we properly win elections going forward.

MELODY JENNINGS (HOST): Wow. And I’ve already told you in the intro that Brett is with Turning Point USA. What a dynamic group you all are. So we’re so thankful that, you know, you are there in Wisconsin and taking on this task. 

So, Meagan Wolfe, we’ve all heard of her and the ilk that she has for Wisconsin, unfortunately. We’ll be crossing our fingers, and let us know how can we — is there anything that needs to be done on that front from the people of Wisconsin to help you with that? Or is that already kind of, you’re just having to go through — jump through loops, hoops now or what’s the process? Do you need help with that initiative at all? 

GALASZEWSKI: Well, one thing that I’m doing through my work at Turning Point Action is encouraging all of our activists in our web to call their state legislators, their state assemblymen, and urge them to support impeachment of Meagan Wolfe. So, to those listening tonight, if you have friends and family in Wisconsin, get on the phone this evening with them and make sure that [if] they haven’t called their state rep already, that they are doing that because this is an all-hands-on-deck effort and it is truly a grassroots, “we the people” movement in Wisconsin. That trickle-up effect that we need is driven by people who view podcasts like this. It’s driven by people who care about those issues, people who want to make sure that our kids and their kids and their kids never have to grow up in a socialist country. So that’s my call to action tonight on that front. 

JENNINGS: Right.

Galaszewski’s appearance and advocacy on Jennings’ show marks yet another connection between the right-wing election denial and QAnon movements; it also shows another way in which Turning Point USA is connected to extremist figures.

The QAnon community has also started to get involved in politics at the local level, and county GOP groups have relied on that participation for their “election integrity” efforts.