Ryan was expected to have an easy time in Tuesday’s primary against a little-known and little-funded businessman, but that was before Paul Nehlen got a Twitter embrace from Trump.
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But he got plenty of attention the week before the election when Trump said he wasn’t ready to endorse Ryan. Some depicted the race as a battle for the direction of the Republican Party, and Nehlen drew the support of some big names outside of Wisconsin, including political commentators Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin and Phyllis Schlafly.
In one July 23 incident, Nehlen supporters and mothers whose children were killed by undocumented immigrants challenged Mr Ryan’s lack of full support for Mr Trump’s immigration agenda.
But the odds had remained long that Ryan would lose, even in this year’s volatile political environment.
Ryan had other advantages, including widespread popularity in the district where he was first elected in 1998. Ryan said he and his wife, Janna, were grateful and thankful for the support. “It doesn’t last. Most of all, it doesn’t work”.
Ryan won his 2014 primary with 94 percent of the vote. Nehlen spent much of his campaign trying to tie himself to Donald Trump, but the Republican presidential nominee ended up grudgingly endorsing Ryan last week. But people can’t vote in both parties’ primaries.
Trump shifted course a few days later under heavy pressure from Republican leadership, but by then Nehlen had gotten a burst of national publicity.
Ken Staszak, voting in Green Bay, called Gallagher “the more conservative of the candidates” and said he “seems like he wouldn’t take any crap”.
Nehlen on Monday criticized Ryan and said people like him “have hijacked this great country of ours from us”.
First the nominee praised Ryan’s opponent, an avid Trump supporter, and pointedly withheld his endorsement of the speaker.
Ryan dismissed a question asking whether his apparent landslide victory over Nehlen means Trump is doomed in the November election. He also has denounced a number of actions by the billionaire, including his plan to bar Muslim immigration to the US and his attacks on a Gold Star family and on a Hispanic-American judge.
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“Speaker Ryan’s commitment to faithfully representing the people of Wisconsin and making the case for conservatism have never changed”, Priebus added, “and his years of principled public service make him a trusted leader in our Party”.
