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Mr. Johnson wrote that he was seeking a new term because “I believe America is in peril,” adding: “Much as I’d like to ease into a quiet retirement, I don’t feel I should.”

This year, Mr. Johnson has been at the forefront of the two strongest strains of misinformation coursing through the Republican Party — false claims about election administration and public health.

In the days after the 2020 election, he challenged Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. During a Senate hearing in February, he read into the record a report that falsely suggested the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol had been instigated by “fake Trump supporters.” In November, he began urging Wisconsin’s Republican state legislators to seize control of federal elections in the state, arguing that they could do so without the governor’s approval, despite decades-old rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court that say otherwise.

Aside from Mr. Trump, there is perhaps no major Republican official who has made more false claims about the coronavirus and its vaccines than Mr. Johnson. He has said he will not get vaccinated, and has promoted discredited Covid-19 treatments and declined to encourage others to seek out the vaccines. In December, he falsely claimed that gargling with mouthwash could help stop transmission of the virus, an assertion that drew a rebuke from the manufacturer of Listerine.

While Mr. Johnson’s false claims have picked up pace recently, they go back years. During his 2010 campaign, he said that climate change was caused by “sun spots” and that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “helps the trees grow.”

For Wisconsin Democrats, Mr. Johnson is both their strongest fund-raising boogeyman and a figure many of them view as an embarrassment to the state along the lines of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

“He’s an active menace to American democracy, a threat to public health and an economic saboteur of the middle class,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “His sole redeeming quality in public life is that in 2022, he’s going to inspire Democrats to organize and turn out.”