Contact: Brad Bainum, bradb@wisdems.org
“Will Republican party leaders Senator Ron Johnson or Governor Scott Walker intervene, or will they repeat their mistakes from the past?”
MADISON — Fresh off of winning the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s endorsement on Saturday, ultra-conservative state Sen. Leah Vukmir immediately called on her GOP primary opponent Kevin Nicholson to “respect the will of the people…and leave the race.”
Vukmir isn’t the only Wisconsin Republican nervous about ensuring party unity. For months, Wisconsin Republicans have publicly fretted about a repeat of 2012’s nasty GOP Senate primary — fears that are understandable, given how nasty Vukmir and Nicholson’s combative primary has become. And Wisconsin Republicans only reiterated those nasty primary concerns over the past few days:
- Sen. Ron Johnson: “Where we’ve had a knockdown, drag-out primary, the results have not been all that good.”
- Reince Priebus: “We don’t have to spend millions of dollars fighting each other, or allow millions of dollars from outside of Wisconsin to come in here and tear our candidates apart…There is no reason to make this Republican Party race for Senate complicated.”
- Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brad Courtney: “Leah Vukmir is a proven conservative who is ready to bring the Wisconsin way to Washington. The grassroots volunteers who endorsed her at convention are the backbone of our election efforts.”
“Wisconsin Republicans know that they are on track for a far more fatal U.S. Senate primary than 2012,” said Brad Bainum, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson for the 2018 Senate race. “Will Republican party leaders Senator Ron Johnson or Governor Scott Walker intervene for the sake of party unity, or are Wisconsin Republicans committed to repeating their mistakes of the past?”
