With just more than a month to go before the Wisconsin primary, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is winning the state — and Republican officials don’t seem to know what to make of it.
“It’s just depressing,” U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told conservative radio host Charlie Sykes on Monday when asked about Trump’s reluctance to denounce former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. “It’s depressing to see how this is devolving.”
Trump’s seemingly unstoppable ascent to the GOP presidential nomination continued to lurch forward this week with victories in seven states on Super Tuesday. In response, a contingent of conservatives launched a social media counteroffensive — #NeverTrump.
Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Sherwood) was among the first GOP elected officials to come out against the billionaire real estate mogul and has been active in the #NeverTrump movement on Twitter.
“For the record, condemning the KKK isn’t something you should have to think twice about. #nevertrump” he tweeted Feb. 28.
Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) has also vowed #NeverTrump. He penned an open letter to Trump supporters, published March 3 on Right Wisconsin, in which he makes an appeal to citizens who are angry with politicians who have promised much and failed to deliver.
“He says things politicians don't say, he is unapologetic in his views, and he exudes a strength that we haven't seen in a presidential candidate in a very long time. He draws the ire of many in the party as he seeks to shake things up. To be honest, [Trump] sounds like a candidate I could buy into,” Steineke wrote. “But I can't, and I won't, because Donald J. Trump is a fraud.”
Steineke continues: “I will always be #NeverTrump. A choice between a crook and a morally bankrupt con man is no real choice at all. I hope it doesn't come to that. I pray that it doesn't.”
The latest Marquette University Law School poll shows Trump leading in Wisconsin with about 30% of likely Republican primary voters. His main challengers, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, trail him with 20% and 19%, respectively, and both have indicated that they plan to stay in the race until the end.
The race is shaping up to be a battle for delegates — Trump has won only 46% so far and will need 51% of those remaining to win the majority needed to get the nomination outright, the Associated Press reports. That’s a difficult feat with four candidates still in the race.
“If the races are not decided by April 5th, Wisconsin will be fascinating. It stands alone with little in the weeks before or after,” GOP strategist Brian Fraley writes in an email to Isthmus. “Right now, however, it is more probably that the nominations will be secured by Trump and Hillary before April 5th.”
Adds Fraley: “I hope I'm wrong.”
But tracking down Wisconsin’s Trump supporters — particularly in Madison — has proven difficult. A spokesman for the state GOP declined comment. Scott Grabins, co-chairman of the Republican Party of Dane County, says Trump supporters have not yet begun organizing locally, but they do exist — and they will likely become more active and visible in coming weeks, as the national campaign turns an eye to Wisconsin after the next round of primaries in March.
When asked who are the Trump supporters in Wisconsin, Fraley was flippant: “Just anonymous A-holes on Twitter.”
The Internet turned out to be a good place to look. The comment section of Steineke’s open letter drew responses from a number of Wisconsinites who support Trump — and they aren’t mincing words.
“I am sick of political slugs telling me what's good for me,” wrote Floyd Zoglman of Neenah. “I'm voting for Trump.”
When contacted by Isthmus for an interview, Zoglman, 71, says he likes Trump for his “realism and honesty.” He thinks conservatives are “looking for a hero” — someone who shows strength, speaks their mind, refuses to compromise and disrupts the establishment.
“I love anybody who really gets people upset,” Zoglman says. “And man, everybody’s upset.”
When asked about the allegations of racism and xenophobia that have plagued Trump’s campaign, Zoglman says he’s “not concerned.” He sympathizes with struggling minorities, but he suggests that liberals are more to blame for racial tension.
“They elected a colored person, and it hasn’t helped the blacks at all,” he says.
Zoglman is a former U.S. Marine, a Rush Limbaugh fan and a self-described fundamentalist Christian, but he says many people who attend his church “detest” Trump.
“I guess they don’t like his arrogance,” he says. “But if you’ve ever been in an organization, there has to be somebody who’s in charge -- otherwise nobody’s going to follow.”
Zoglman believes that Trump, with his background as a businessman, could negotiate with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and prevent the Chinese from devaluing the dollar. He calls Trump’s plan to build a wall along the country’s Southern border “a neat idea.”
But beyond that, he believes Trump will unify the nation.
“We don’t stand up for anything. We don’t stand up for the common man,” Zoglman says. “Trump has a sense of America. We’re going to make America great again.”
