Dylan Brogan
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, left, campaigns with Leah Vukmir, who is running for Wisconsin’s other Senate seat against incumbent Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is urging Republicans to unite behind Leah Vukmir after her bitter primary race against Kevin Nicholson for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination. Vukmir won last week’s election by six points with big wins in southeast Wisconsin, despite losing 57 of 72 counties.
Johnson tells GOP loyalists at a Fitchburg Aug. 18 rally that the party can’t afford to be divided now that Vukmir has moved on to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Johnson says the left is “pretty energized.”
“That’s the whole purpose of this day: Unifying our party,” Johnson says to a few dozen gathered at the local GOP office. “[We need] to make sure we send Leah Vukmir as my junior senator as opposed to Tammy Baldwin.”
Vukmir and Johnson are spending the day on a “primary victory tour” with stops in Waukesha, Green Bay, Wausau and Fitchburg. Vukmir, a state senator from Brookfield, says the party must learn from former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s loss to Baldwin in 2012, which she blames on the attack ads Republicans ran against each other in that primary.
“I hope that we can come together. One thing we learned from past elections is that if we stay divided, that’s why we have Tammy Baldwin in the first place,” Vukmir tells the audience. “She doesn’t deserve another six years.”
Johnson asks if anyone in the crowd supported Nicholson. Lisa Burnside of Middleton sheepishly raises her hand.
“His backer was Ted Cruz — I’m sorry,” confesses Burnside to the group. But Johnson reassures her that Nicholson “is going to be putting his full weight and support behind Leah.”
“You’ll see him more visibly, probably on the campaign trail,” says Johnson. “Thank you for coming out.”
When asked by Isthmus why Burnside supported Nicholson, she says “I believe men are good leaders.” But she’s fully behind Vukmir now and believes “all true conservatives are, too.”
“The left doesn’t want God to be anywhere. When it used to be right out front. What do you think our country was established on? The Ten Commandments,” says Burnside. “Don’t twist my words. Print the truth.”
For the first time in state history, both major political parties have nominated women for U.S. Senate. Baldwin, 56, has lived in Madison most of her life. She was the first woman to be elected senator from Wisconsin. She’s also the nation’s first openly gay senator. Baldwin has served in Congress since 1999, representing Wisconsin’s 2nd District before winning her Senate seat.
Vukmir, 60, is the daughter of Greek immigrants and a lifelong resident of the Milwaukee area, specifically Brookfield. She is a registered nurse and pediatric nurse practitioner. She was first elected to the state Assembly in 2002. In 2011, she was elected to the state Senate and has been a chief ally in advancing Gov. Scott Walker’s conservative agenda.
This year’s GOP primary race may have exposed a rift between the Republican establishment in Wisconsin and its Trump-loving base.
Nicholson, a political newcomer who used to be a Democrat, outspent Vukmir in the Aug. 14 primary and was up in several polls throughout the campaign. The Marine Corps veteran ran an “outsider” campaign against Vukmir — who was backed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and most of Walker’s immediate family.
Nicholson’s campaign was fueled, in part, with nearly $11 million in support from groups connected to Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein. They spent millions on negative TV ads against Vukmir labeling her “a typical politician.” One ad featured video of Vukmir speaking critically of Donald Trump in 2016.
“[Trump is] offensive. But he’s offensive to everyone. He’s offensive to women, he’s offensive to men,” Vukmir says in the ad. “He’s offensive to little people. He’s offensive to fat people. He’s offensive to everyone. He offends everyone.”
But Vukmir is all aboard the MAGA train now. The president, via tweet, endorsed her after her primary win. On Upfront with Mike Gousha, on Aug. 19, Vukmir admitted she was initially skeptical of Trump. But she explained that she supported Trump once he won the GOP nomination, even as fellow Wisconsin Republicans, including U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, were distancing themselves. Ryan and others condemned Trump after his infamous “grab them by the pussy” comment was unearthed from a 2005 Access Hollywood video.
“I supported [Trump] when many people were not — during the darkest hour of his campaign — with the women for Trump radio ad,” Vukmir told Gousha.” [Voters] were starving for this type of leadership. They are excited and I’m excited to be that reinforcement that is sorely needed in the U.S. Senate to help [Trump] get his agenda done.”
Thomas Hanley of Sun Prairie attended the rally in Fitchburg so his grandson could meet Vukmir. He’s not worried about Republicans uniting against Baldwin this fall.
“I think [Vukmir] will make good decisions for the people — not for the bureaucrats,” says Hanley. “It’s about time we clean up Washington. I think this lady can help do that.”
Hanley doesn’t care for “lobbyists controlling the agenda,” regardless of party.
On Monday, Baldwin released a new ad that takes aim at Vukmir for exactly that. Titled “Shadowy,” the ad attacks Vukmir for her leadership role in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a bill-writing organization funded by multinational corporations.
“She’s taken tens of thousands of dollars from ALEC members and pushed their agenda in Wisconsin,” the narrator says in the ad. “Leah Vukmir: She’s not for us.”
The ad mirrors Baldwin’s effective attack against Thompson in 2012: “He’s not for you anymore.”
In Fitchburg, Vukmir tells the crowd she’s a “mom with a cause” who got into politics as a grassroots activist because she “questioned the role of government in her family’s life.” She rallies supporters by telling them — in her best attempt at an aristocratic accent — that Baldwin was “hobnobbing in the Hamptons” at a weekend fundraiser with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand from New York.
“[Gillibrand] says the first thing she wants to do if the U.S. Senate turns over to the Dems is abolish ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” says Vukmir.
“Let’s put her on ice,” says a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
Vukmir also takes aim at Baldwin’s longtime support for a universal health care plan.
“[Baldwin] is not afraid to run around the state of Wisconsin with an avowed socialist: Bernie Sanders. [He] wants government-run, full socialized medicine,” says Vukmir. “Can you imagine how much fun I’m going to have debating her on the differences between free market health care and government-run health care?”
Even in deep blue Dane County, the Republicans enthusiastically cheer Vukmir on. She brags about the state’s low unemployment rate and the budget surpluses and tax cuts of the Walker administration. She says she stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the governor during the Act 10 protests that “brought down the stranglehold of public sector unions.”
“You had to take out your photo ID when you voted this past week — isn’t that great? [The accomplishments] just go on and on and on,” says Vukmir. “[Let’s] not give up on this great idea — this wonderful experiment our founding fathers envisioned.”
Vukmir is not expected to win Dane County this November, but as Johnson notes, the progressive stronghold still reliably produces 30,000-40,000 votes for Republicans on a statewide ballot.
One Republican is just thrilled he finally got a chance to wear his “I choose Leah” T-shirt.
“I was worried my neighbor might say something even when I was just walking out to the car,” says the Madison man. “I don’t even know what the left is so angry about. You can’t even put up a yard sign or a bumper sticker for a conservative candidate without it being destroyed in this town.”
