Roger Roth


Roger J. Roth Jr. is an American politician and homebuilder, currently serving as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate.

Early life and education

Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, Roth served in the Wisconsin Air National Guard and is an Iraq War veteran. Roth graduated from St. Mary Central High School in Neenah, Wisconsin and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Career

Prior to entering politics, Roth was a self-employed homebuilder. He served in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican from 2007 to 2011.
Roth ran for the Wisconsin State Senate against Penny Bernard Schaber in the 19th district to replace long time incumbent Michael Ellis in the 2014 election. On November 4, 2014, Roth won the election.
In 2019, Roth claimed that Wisconsin Republicans did not curb the powers of the incoming Democratic administration during the lame-duck session. The statement was ranked "pants-on-fire" by factchecking source PolitiFact.
On March 26, 2020, in response to a request from Wu Ting, the wife of the newly-appointed Chinese consul-general in Chicago, to Roth to introduce a resolution indicating the support of Wisconsin for China's response to the coronavirus, Roth instead proposed a resolution on the Wisconsin State Senate floor praising the Chinese civilization, yet asserting that "the Chinese people held hostage by a brutal and oppressive regime these past 70 years" and that the Chinese Communist Party "has deliberately and intentionally misled the world," listing in detail various human rights abuses from the 70-year period that the People's Republic of China has existed as a nation, including the Occupation of Tibet, the persecution of Uyghurs, the systematic harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners and other political prisoners, and other restrictions on religious freedom and freedom of speech, in addition to accusing the Chinese government of sustained intellectual property theft. The resolution is located here:

Personal life

His uncle, Toby Roth, served in the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin from 1979 to 1997.

Electoral history