Outspoken state Wisconsin Rep. Jesse Kremer not running for re-election

MADISON - GOP state Rep. Jesse Kremer said Tuesday he would not run for re-election, ending an outspoken tenure in which he fought to limit abortion and allow the concealed carry of guns at schools and University of Wisconsin campuses.

The Kewaskum pilot and Iraq War veteran said he would leave the Legislature in a year and would be training to fly Gulfstream jets.

"I will be forgotten in short order ... but I hope I have made at least some mark on this body," Kremer said in a floor speech Tuesday.

Kremer, who has challenged Democrats and his own Republican leaders, might not be forgotten quite so quickly.

Since being elected in 2014, Kremer has pushed a number of emotionally charged bills, including one to crack down on UW System students who disrupt other people's speeches and events, pitting one set of free speech concerns against another.

In his three years in office, Kremer often grabbed attention with controversial statements such as his May 2017 challenge to research by geologists showing the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

"The Earth is 6,000 years old, that’s a fact," Kremer said at the time, drawing a false rating from the group PolitiFact Wisconsin.