House Speaker Paul Ryan easily defeated his primary challenger Tuesday night, putting to rest concerns that he was in electoral danger after Donald Trump’s involvement in the race.
Advertisement
Solen beat Tom Breu in Tuesday’s Democratic primary to advance to a formidable matchup with Ryan for his southeast Wisconsin seat. With a quarter of precincts reporting, he’s got a wide lead over conservative business executive Paul Nehlen.
Mike Gallagher, a former Marine who served as national security adviser for Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign previous year, handily defeated two opponents in the Republican primary. Trump waited until last Friday to offer his support of the speaker.
Until recently, Ryan had little reason to assume he would have any trouble against Nehlen: no House Speaker in recent history has lost his or her respective primary, and Ryan is popular in his district.
“He’s a hometown guy”, said Vickie Berg, 50, who said she has met Ryan and his family several times at church.
Nehlen says he agrees with Trump on many immigration and trade issues while Ryan has criticized some of the presidential nominee’s remarks.
Ryan dismissed a question asking whether his apparent landslide victory over Nehlen means Trump is doomed in the November election.
Ryan’s race was the unexpected focus just a week after GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump threw a burst of publicity toward his little-known and inexperienced opponent, Paul Nehlen.
The race became the centre of attention a week ago when Trump refused to endorse Ryan during an interview with the Washington Post.
Paul Nehlen’s long-shot bid to oust Ryan was just that – a long shot.
Palin’s prediction that Ryan would be “Cantored” – a reference to the 2014 primary defeat of then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by economics professor David Brat – came after Trump had won enough primaries to reach the delegate total needed to clinch the nomination, and Ryan initially declined to endorse him.
He first made a splash with a web video riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, showing his tattooed arms and challenged Ryan to an arm-wrestling match if he wouldn’t debate him.
Ryan even invoked Trump’s name, saying even Trump is for “good deals”, but Ryan qualified that statement by adding a more robust defense for open markets.
Advertisement
The movement against the 46-year-old Ryan took on the appearance of a revolt of sorts, in the midst of an anti-establishment wave that helped make Mr Trump the party’s presidential nominee. As it turned out, that positive rating nearly perfectly predicted Ryan’s share of the primary vote Tuesday.
