{"id":2020248,"date":"2023-09-02T12:41:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T16:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-top-wisconsin-republicans-open-up-on-the-fight-for-tammy-baldwins-senate-seat\/"},"modified":"2023-09-02T12:46:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T16:46:04","slug":"in-depth-top-wisconsin-republicans-open-up-on-the-fight-for-tammy-baldwins-senate-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-top-wisconsin-republicans-open-up-on-the-fight-for-tammy-baldwins-senate-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin GOP leaders discuss battle for Tammy Baldwin&#8217;s Senate seat."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-depth-top-wisconsin-republicans-open-up-on-the-fight-for-tammy-baldwins-senate-seat%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2020248&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Sen. Tammy Baldwin: A\u2062 Strong Contender for Wisconsin&#8217;s Senate Seat<\/h2>\n<p>Sen. \u2062Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) may feel cautiously optimistic \u2064about next\u200b year&#8217;s election. Almost \u200ba decade after she soundly \u200cdefeated former Wisconsin\u2064 Gov. Tommy Thompson in a contest for Democrat Herb Kohl&#8217;s old seat, she stands out\u200b as a not actively unpopular liberal \u200csenator in America&#8217;s Dairyland. Think Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) without the clear presidential aspirations.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re proud of the fact that\u2063 we&#8217;ve been able to turn \u2063Wisconsin from\u200c what was kind \u200cof previously \u2062a\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-democratic-governors-are-doing-a-heckuva-job\/\" title=\"ANALYSIS: Democratic Governors Are Doing a Heckuva Job\">reliably blue state<\/a> into, at worst, \u2063a\u2064 purple state,&#8221; said Brian Westrate, the Republican Party of Wisconsin&#8217;s state treasurer, in an Aug. 2 \u2063interview with The Epoch \u2063Times.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And local \u2063Democrats have enjoyed some electoral\u2064 improvements\u200b under\u200d the\u2062 leadership of Ben Wikler, who has chaired the state&#8217;s party \u2064since 2019. The state that elected \u200dconservative Republican Scott Walker governor is now\u2062 run by left-leaning Democrat Tony Evers, and Judge Janet Protasiewicz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/janet-protasiewicz-wins-wisconsin-state-supreme-court-race-tipping-courts-balance-to-progressives-5172607\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">won \u200ca key seat<\/a> in\u2064 the state&#8217;s Supreme Court in 2023,\u200d tipping\u2064 that body to\u200c the left. Perhaps most notably, in 2020, President \u2063Joe\u2062 Biden claimed the state President Donald Trump \u200dtook in 2016.<\/p>\n<h3>Republican \u2062Strengths in Wisconsin<\/h3>\n<p>Yet, while some Democratic\u2062 achievements\u2063 in Wisconsin have made headlines, other,\u2063 less well<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-top-wisconsin-republicans-open-up-on-the-fight-for-tammy-baldwins-senate-seat\/\" title=\"Wisconsin GOP leaders discuss battle for Tammy Baldwin's Senate seat.\">-publicized indicators signal \u200cquiet strength<\/a> on the Republican side.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The GOP\u200b has maintained\u2063 its hold over the state senate and assembly since 2018.<\/li>\n<li>The state senate \u200dis now made up of 22 Republicans and 11 Democrats.<\/li>\n<li>In the state assembly,\u200d there are 64 Republicans and 35 Democrats.<\/li>\n<li>The\u2062 GOP also \u2062dominates the state&#8217;s delegation\u2063 to the House of Representatives with six Republicans and just two Democrats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And while the last few years have seen some wins by Democrats, the \u200cstate&#8217;s party has mostly \u200dregained ground that it lost \u200cto the\u2063 GOP in the recent past.<\/p>\n<h3>The \u200cBattle for \u2062Wisconsin&#8217;s Senate Seat<\/h3>\n<p>The upcoming battle \u200cover Ms. \u2064Baldwin&#8217;s seat comes as national Republicans make Wisconsin a focal point. The first primary candidate debate \u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-free-gop-means-more-ramaswamy-trends-and-highlights-of-the-first-debate-5479871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">took place\u200d in Milwaukee<\/a> on \u200bAug. 23, though the frontrunner, Mr. Trump, was \u2062notably absent. \u200cThe party will also hold its \u20642024 national \u2063convention in Milwaukee \u2064in July.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of next year, it&#8217;s clear that Upper Midwestern voters matter to both parties, but\u200d perhaps especially to Republicans eager to\u2063 avoid a repeat \u2064of\u2064 2020 \u200band the\u2063 unimpressive &#8220;red trickle&#8221; of \u20632022.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;We are perhaps the most important, or one of the top-five most important states in the country in terms of who&#8217;s going to be \u2063the\u200d next president, and\u200d I want to\u2063 make sure that we win\u2064 the presidency \u2064in 2024,&#8221; said Rep.\u2064 Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) in an\u2064 Aug. 17 \u2062interview\u200d with The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If Wisconsinites \u200cvote \u2062red, it&#8217;s \u200cnot because they\u200b always see \u200cred.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re Wisconsin nice. We&#8217;re not fire\u200c breathers. We&#8217;re not\u200d bomb throwers,&#8221; Mr. Westrate said.<\/p>\n<p>On his account, the \u2064party \u200bhas been able \u200bto make a particularly strong case to Cheeseheads on\u200c economic issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If \u200cyou can acknowledge that two plus two equals four, I think we can get you to see how our economic \u2062policies lead to prosperity,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Social issues \u200cmight \u200cbe a different story \u2064in the moderate state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The social issues are what they are,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you \u200bhave\u2064 a loved one\u200c who&#8217;s part of the LGBT community, or \u2064if you have a loved\u200b one who you know had \u200dan abortion for \u2062one\u2062 reason or another, or if you&#8217;re not a \u2063person of faith, those things \u200dare going\u200d to define your own personal social issues,&#8221; Mr.\u2063 Westrate continued.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Tiffany laid out how he \u2063thinks Republicans can make a convincing argument \u200cfor themselves, particularly after the 2020 reelection contest \u2062saw Mr.\u2063 Trump&#8217;s support apparently\u200c erode \u200brelative to that of his Democratic \u200ccompetition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Set the \u200cpersonalities\u2064 aside for those people that simply \u2063want to\u2063 talk about Donald Trump \u2064and personalities,&#8221; he \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n<p>He listed government \u2064spending,\u200b energy independence, and \u2064the border among the issues he sees as &#8220;powerful for the\u200d voters\u200d of the \u2064state of Wisconsin.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to talk to people about that,&#8221; he\u200c added.<\/p>\n<p>Both Mr. Tiffany and Mr. \u200cWestrate mentioned education as an issue where Republicans could\u2062 shine, with the lawmaker\u2062 suggesting\u2062 that student performance in \u2063Dane \u200bCounty, a Democratic\u2062 stronghold, opened up an \u2064opportunity for Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you\u2064 look at student achievement, especially \u2062the racial disparity, in \u200cMadison, that should be\u200b a three-alarm fire\u2063 for people\u2063 in Dane\u2064 County,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t concede\u200c Dane County\u2062 because \u2064it&#8217;s the \u200dfastest-growing \u200ccounty in \u2064the state,&#8221; Mr. Tiffany continued.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Tiffany said\u2064 that Ms. Baldwin&#8217;s long history in\u2062 government, beginning with her election \u2062to the Dane County Board \u2062of \u200cSupervisors \u2062at age \u206424, could harm her reelection bid.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a career\u200d politician, and people are just tired of them,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also\u2063 characterized Ms. Baldwin as &#8220;a rubber stamp for President Biden.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen \u2062what\u200d Bidenomics has \u2062done to America,&#8221; Mr. \u2062Tiffany added,\u2064 citing energy prices, inflation, and\u2062 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/fitch-downgrades-us-credit-rating-citing-erosion-of-confidence-in-fiscal-management-5438222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downgrade<\/a> \u200din the United States&#8217; credit \u200crating.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Mr. Westrate acknowledged \u200dthat Ms. Baldwin&#8217;s \u200brecord has relatively few obvious vulnerabilities as she prepares to seek another term.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Senator Baldwin doesn&#8217;t appear to have done a lot of things that \u200bmight have turned\u200c the middle off,&#8221; he \u200bsaid, referring to the \u200bvast number of middle-of-the-road voters who,\u200b in his words, \u200b&#8221;win \u200cthe election.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Mr. Tiffany suggested that the Wisconsin contest may be\u2062 a low priority for the\u200c National Republican Senate Committee&#8217;s (NRSC&#8217;s) resources as against other \u200blikely \u2064critical contests: \u200c&#8221;West Virginia, Montana, Ohio, possibly Arizona.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-vote-in-gop-primaries-in-attempt-to-block-trump\/\" title=\"Democrats Vote in GOP Primaries in Attempt to Block Trump\">eventual candidate<\/a> would need\u200d &#8220;to convince\u200d [NRSC Chair] Steve Daines \u2064that Wisconsin is\u2063 worth investing in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Potential Candidates<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Tiffany \u2063spoke with The Epoch Times weeks after he turned down the chance\u200b to run against Ms. Baldwin himself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought that I could \u200cdo the most good\u2064 for\u200c the \u200dpeople in the State of Wisconsin staying put in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-red-wave-of-conservative-women-elected-to-congress\/\" title=\"The Red Wave of Conservative Women Elected to Congress\">7th congressional district<\/a> \u2062because the most important race \u200bthat is going\u2064 to happen\u200b in 2024 is the presidential campaign,&#8221; he told \u2064The Epoch\u200c Times.<\/p>\n<p>Mr.\u2064 Walker, the state&#8217;s former\u2063 governor, and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) are among the other Wisconsin politicians who have\u200d also declined to challenge Ms. Baldwin.<\/p>\n<p>Longshot Republican candidate Rejani Raveendran entered contention \u200din early August. For now, more\u200c plausible Republican hopefuls haven&#8217;t yet joined the \u2062race.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are\u200b optimistic \u2062that we&#8217;re going to have an \u200cexcellent candidate step\u2064 forward, or candidates, and then through the primary process, \u2064that \u2064people will choose\u2063 the person they want \u200dto \u200cultimately face Senator Baldwin,&#8221; Mr. Westrate said.<\/p>\n<p>One of the better-known potential primary entrants is former Milwaukee \u200dSheriff David \u200bClarke. Mr. Clarke has \u2064repeatedly hinted at a \u2062run, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SheriffClarke\/status\/1667174256831000580?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posting<\/a> a screenshotted poll \u2062on\u200b Twitter\/X that he said \u2063shows no \u200bone &#8220;energizes or excites the base \u200bvoter like I \u2063do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Public Policy Polling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicpolicypolling.com\/polls\/wisconsin-republicans-prefer-clarke-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">survey<\/a>, conducted before\u200b Mr. Tiffany \u2063and Mr. Gallagher dropped out, showed\u2063 Mr. Clarke \u2062besting Mr. Tiffany, Mr. Gallagher, and Madison \u2062businessman Eric Hovde by wide margins.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sheriff Clarke certainly has a certain\u200c notoriety within some elements of the right side of the \u200daisle. I would tend to look \u2063maybe\u2064 at some folks who have run\u200c statewide races \u200dpreviously, who have\u2062 a good sense of what that \u200ctakes to at least\u200d be competitive\u200d in a statewide race,&#8221; Mr.\u2064 Westrate said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked to name contenders who warrant attention from national media,\u2062 he mentioned Will Martin, who ran in \u2063the state&#8217;s\u200c 2022\u2062 Republican lieutenant governor primary. He also drew\u2063 attention \u200cto that year&#8217;s Republican\u200d lieutenant governor candidate, Roger Roth, who lost to \u2062Democrat \u200dSara Rodriguez, \u2062and to former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t\u2062 think she [Ms. Kleefisch] has any\u200c interest in federal\u200c office. \u200bBut she&#8217;s somebody that I think should certainly be in the \u200dconversation if we&#8217;re talking about statewide candidates,&#8221; \u2064Mr. Westrate said.<\/p>\n<p>TV host Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of former congressman and\u2062 &#8220;Real World&#8221; star Sean Duffy,\u2064 and the mother of Chicago Thinker co-founder Evita Duffy, has also come up as a possible\u200d opponent of \u2062Ms. \u2063Baldwin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think she would be a very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-working-class-gop-a-muddled-concept\/\" title=\"The Working-Class GOP: A Muddled Concept\">strong candidate<\/a>,&#8221; Mr.\u2062 Tiffany said, \u200cadding\u2062 that he thinks Mr. \u2063Duffy would also &#8220;be a\u2062 very s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is cautiously hopeful for the upcoming election. Despite defeating former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson years ago, she remains a popular liberal senator in America&#8217;s Dairyland. Similar to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), she lacks clear presidential ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":2020249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2020249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}