Paul Ryan Campaigns to Fend Off Trump-Fueled Primary Challenger
Ryan is expected to win his Tuesday primary.
— -- After months of working to keep Republicans united in a tumultuous election year, House Speaker Paul Ryan is confronting the intra-party tensions at home in Wisconsin as he prepares to face off with a Donald Trump-supporting candidate in his own primary.
Businessman Paul Nehlen, a first-time candidate with ties to the tea party movement and the support of Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter, has forcefully backed Donald Trump's presidential campaign throughout 2016.
Nehlen has also accused Ryan, who has endorsed Trump but repeatedly condemned his campaign, of undermining the GOP presidential nominee.
“Paul Ryan has been part of the never-Trump group,” Nehlen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of the Wisconsin Republican. “Paul Ryan is the party of ‘Only Me.’ Paul Ryan is the establishment tool in D.C. that tries to splinter groups and does not work for the will of the people.”
The race gained national attention last week when the Republican presidential nominee praised Nehlen and refused to endorse Ryan, saying in an interview he wasn’t “quite there yet” in his support for Ryan.
“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country,” Trump told the Washington Post in an interview last Tuesday, mimicking Ryan's public comments about withholding his support. “We need very strong leadership... and I’m not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet.”
Trump has since decided to endorse the House speaker, reading from a prepared statement at a rally in Ryan’s home state Friday.
“We will have disagreements, but we will disagree as friends and never stop working together toward victory,” Trump said. “And very important toward real change. So in our shared mission to make America great again, I support and endorse our Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.”
The tattooed and motorcycle-riding Nehlen, who challenged Ryan to an arm-wrestling match earlier in the year and has driven a dump truck around the district urging voters to "Dump Ryan,” has focused his campaign against Ryan on two issues at the heart of Trump's campaign: immigration and trade.
He recently held an immigration protest outside Ryan's family's home, and has accused Ryan of supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Ryan wrote and supported the measure that gave President Obama the ability to negotiate the deal. The longtime free-trade advocate now says the deal needs to be revised before he can support it.
Ryan, who has aired three television campaign ads in his district and campaigned aggressively throughout the summer, has repeatedly challenged Nehlen's credentials in a series of recent radio interviews, and said he doesn't represent conservatism.
In one recent interview, Ryan also slammed Nehlen's call for a national debate over deporting all Muslims, calling it "indefensible."
While Nehlen has taken advantage of the national GOP debate, Ryan, who is among the most popular Republicans in Wisconsin, has the support of the state's GOP leaders.
"We are Ryan Republicans here in Wisconsin, not Trump Republicans," Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wrote last week on conservative website RightWisconsin.
On the eve of the primary, which Ryan is expected to win handily, he and Nehlen will spend the day campaigning in southern Wisconsin.
Ryan will visit two local businesses -- A&E Tools in Racine, and Ocenco in Pleasant Prairie -- to speak with employees.
Keeping with his aggressive challenge to Ryan, Nehlen plans to hold a rally today in front of Ryan's congressional office.