With 86.5 percent of precincts reporting, Ryan has 84.2 percent of the vote, compared to challenger Paul Nehlen with 15.8 percent.
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Early last week, Trump tweeted a thanks to Nehlen, which seemed to be a tacit endorsement of Ryan’s challenger.
Trump tweeted his thanks to Nehlen for supporting him during his dust up with the Muslim American parents of a US soldier killed in Iraq. “We know all about what the people are saying”, he said.
“So that even though Trump, last Friday in Wisconsin, gave a formal endorsement to Paul Ryan, it would still be correct to interpret the degree of votes that Nehlen gets as kind of a Trump vote”, said Lee. And while he conceded the loss in the primary election, he sounded less than defeated, urging his supporters to launch a movement to “liberate” Wisconsin’s First Congressional District.
In the end, Trump’s impact on the Ryan race may have negligible, other than to possibly boost turnout, which was somewhat higher Tuesday than it was in Ryan’s token primary in 2014. This is absolutely igniting exactly what we wanted: “our country back”.
Speaking on Tuesday night, Mr. Ryan offered a counterpoint to Mr. Trump’s campaign, without naming him.
Ryan will face Democrat Ryan Solen, an Iraq war veteran, in the November 8 general election.
Joanne Simenson was backing Nehlen because she says Ryan is a big spender, just like everyone else in Congress.
The victory for Ryan was no surprise as he led polls by overwhelming margins throughout the entirety of the race.
Ryan had downplayed the primary challenge and rarely, if at all, engaged with Nehlen.
No House speaker in modern political history has lost a primary, and Ryan is hugely popular in the southeastern Wisconsin district he has represented for almost two decades. 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and conservative columnist Michelle Malkin supported Nehlen, but it wasn’t enough to unseat Ryan, who has an astounding 80 percent approval rating in his district.
His hope was to replicate the achievement of Virginian Dave Brat, an economist who knocked off then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a GOP primary two years ago. Nehlen attracted support from Palin and conservative provocateur Ann Coulter, with the latter appearing alongside Nehlen in the district the weekend before the election.
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Paul Nehlen speaks Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Janesville, Wis., after losing to House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s primary.
