Umm, no. I was actually here in Wisconsin on the front lines.
The “hardcore” GOPe Wisconsin voters and politicians did back Kasich. Kasich took up to 20% in some congressional districts. Hardly a non-factor.
Did some local GOPe throw in behind Cruz? Sure.
But Cruz had more than 60% support in Wisconsin’s WOW counties surrounding Milwaukee - home of Wisconsin’s conservative base.
What you are missing is that there was ZERO GOP support for Trump in Wisconsin during the April primary. There was exactly one village board member in just one very small suburb of Milwaukee who endorsed Trump. That’s it.
Yes, Democrat Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clark supported Trump, but hadn’t yet endorsed him.
Only those politicians and party officials you have slagged as GOPe have boarded (albeit reluctantly) the Trump train in Wisconsin. From my perspective, some of those endorsers are - in fact - GOPe. Others I have viewed as generally more conservative, but understand their endorsement in terms of party unity. But to this day, most conservatives in Wisconsin have refused to endorse Trump.
We Wisconsin conservatives will vote for Trump in November, but only if our votes potentially matter (i.e. polls indicate that Trump has a fighter’s chance of winning Wisconsin’s electoral votes).
Our efforts are focused on re-electing Ron Johnson to the US Senate.
Your big mistake is calling supporters of Amnesty Ryan and his progressive corportist agenda “conservative.” Sorry, there is simply nothing conservative or patriotic about Paul Ryan. That you chose not to engage him shows you are just fine with his destructive anti-American agenda. How principled and conservative of you. And I can see how would be a big fan of Obama enabling and Natural Born Canadian TPA Ted Cruz.
And your big mistake is thinking that Cantorizing Ryan and losing a safe House seat with a scamPAC stooge like Nehlen is conservative.
You are all being fleeced by a Virginia-based con artist who is paying himself megabucks as a "campaign manager" for Nehlen and extracting exhorbitant fees for the consulting firm "advising" Nehlen's campaign.
The next refrain will be "Well, at least Nehlen isn't a progressive corporatist like Ryan!"
To which I respond, "And how do you know that?"
Nehlen has no local roots, has NEVER participated in GOP or Tea Party activities and was unwilling to respond to a Right to Life questionnaire which would have resulted in a co-endorsement for his primary campaign. Nehlen is cypher, not an alternative.
I'm not saying that I love Ryan. I don't. Is Ryan a conservative? Not as much as I would like, but he has a far more conservative record than Trump. Ryan is also the highest elected official ever to come from Wisconsin and I'm not going to trade that for some magic beans.
Wisconsin conservatives will engage Ryan when it makes sense, when there is a reasonable alternative and when so much else is not at stake.
Trump's shout out for Nehlen is juvenile, unnecessary and politically tone deaf. But i'm sure it felt good for his ego. Lord knows it has been at least 17 seconds since Sean Hannity last kissed his ass.
Trump is blowing his race in Wiscosnin and will take down Ron Johnson and GOP cpntrol of the US Senate with him.