Contact: WisPolitics.com Editor JR Ross, 608-669-8418
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Republican activists attending this weekend’s Wisconsin Republican Party convention prefer to see state Sen. Leah Vukmir as the party’s nominee next year to take on Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, according to a WisPolitics.com straw poll.
They also strongly approve of President Trump’s job performance.
Just more than 47 percent of the 296 delegates, alternates and registered guests at this weekend’s convention who voted in the straw poll backed Vukmir, R-Brookfield. Nearly 14 percent preferred state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, while another 12 percent indicated their support for businessman Eric Hovde, who ran unsuccessfully for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination in 2012.
They also uniformly back Trump with nearly 56 percent strongly approving the president’s job performance, while another 35 percent approve.
State GOP officials said roughly 800 delegates, alternates and guests had registered at the convention as of Saturday afternoon.
See complete coverage of the straw poll and the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention in the WisPolitics.com Convention Blog: https://www.wispolitics.com/category/gop-convos/
WisPolitics.com, started in 2000, is a nonpartisan online news organization based in Madison, Wis., that operates an email news service in addition to the free sites WisPolitics.com, WisBusiness.com and WisOpinion.com. WisPolitics.com will also conduct a straw poll at the state Democratic convention in Middleton on the first weekend in June.
**2017 GOP convention straw poll results**
296 valid ballots
If the 2018 GOP primary for U.S. Senate were held today, whom would you support?
Leah Vukmir 140 47.3%
Scott Fitzgerald 41 13.9%
Eric Hovde 36 12.2%
Dale Kooyenga 23 7.8%
Nicole Schneider 14 4.7%
Kevin Nicholson 13 4.4%
Write ins
David Clarke 11 3.7%
Rebecca Kleefisch 2 0.7%
Sean Duffy 2 0.7%
Dean Knudson 1 0.3%
Scott Walker 1 0.3%
No vote 12 4.1%
How would you rate Donald Trump’s performance as president?
Strongly Approve 165 55.7%
Approve 104 35.1%
No position/opinion 6 2%
Disapprove 13 4.4%
Strongly Disapprove 5 1.7%
No vote 3 1%
