MADISON – The General Election on Tuesday, November 6, was dominated, as it always is, by only two major parties. Yet the field of candidates was rife with alternative political perspectives, chief among them being those of the Constitution Party of Wisconsin (CPoW). “Even though Republicans struggled to avoid it, social issues were definitely on the ballot in 2018,” said Andrew Zuelke, CPoW Chairman. “We are the only Party upholding the principles of constitutionally limited government that also ardently defends the rights of the unborn, proudly campaigns for traditional marriage and the natural family, and seeks to uphold the historic Christian moral order which has brought so much blessing to our nation and to the world.”

Responding to the commonly held notion that the Republicans are champions of these causes, Zuelke added, “Yeah, maybe that was the case two or three decades ago. But not anymore… Even when they win elections, they ignore important social issues in the legislatures. Social issues for them are often merely bargaining chips to be compromised away while negotiating over economic policies.”

Running as the only alternative candidates in their respective races, Terry Larson for Attorney General and Thomas Harland for Assembly District 64, campaigned with social issues central to their political message. Mr. Larson vowed to enforce Wisconsin Statute 940.04, which prohibits taking the lives of the unborn, and promised to uphold Article XIII, Sec. 13 of the Wisconsin State Constitution which limits marriage to one man and one woman. Thomas Harland championed traditional family values and called for an immediate end to the state-sanctioned murder of defenseless unborn children. None of their opponents offered any consolation to the many Wisconsinites having deep concerns over these vital issues.

And it showed at the polls. CPoW Communications Director Douglas Lindee noted that the returns indicated an encouraging trend. “When I started looking at the data, I found some interesting inferences regarding the level of disenfranchisement conservative voters seem to have with the Republican Party and the level of resonance with our political message that appears to be growing among them. Terry Larson received about 47,000+ votes – around two percent statewide. That may seem low, but we outperformed all of our ‘third-party’ competitors by over 100%. Indeed, the support Terry received from conservative voters in Wisconsin seems to have deprived the Republican Brad Schimel of victory.”

That remains to be seen, of course, as the count is very close and all the votes have yet to be tallied. But the support Terry Larson received, all by itself, is without a doubt, significant in terms of its impact on Wisconsin’s political landscape. Lindee continued, “Thomas Harland faced a single opponent in District 64, Democrat Peter Barca, and garnered twenty percent of the vote in that progressive district. But what is most telling of all is what happens when a Constitution Party candidate faces a single opponent who is Republican.”

“We had this scenario in two partisan local elections. Members of our Party – Tom Wakely of Oneida County, and Marion Shaw of St. Croix County – ran for county Sheriff against Republican incumbents, and both received around twenty percent of the vote. While some of that may be attributable to ignorant progressives desperately voting for “anyone but the Republican,” we are convinced that these results, in combination with the results from our statewide races, suggest that around eighteen percent of conservatives are voting for Republicans only in the hopes of keeping liberal progressives from winning the election, not from a loyal confidence in the Republican Party at all. In fact, they appear to be so dissatisfied with Republican compromises that eighteen percent of them would rather vote for a candidate from a Party having much greater integrity on social and constitutional issues,” Lindee concluded.

Wisconsin Constitutionalists agree that unless Republicans make a dramatic course change, they will continue to pay for it in future elections. Regardless, the Constitution Party of Wisconsin will continue to build upon its gains this year and improve its performance in terms of reaching Wisconsin voters with its message and in terms of turning that messaging into votes.

Douglas Lindee joined Chairman Andrew Zuelke in expressing delight in the Party’s performance statewide on Tuesday. “We are very pleased with our performance in this election, with the obvious gains we have made over previous recent elections. We are encouraged by the support we have received from many tens of thousands of conservative voters across the State of Wisconsin, and will be actively building on that support in future elections to have even greater political impact in 2020 and beyond.”

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