All the huge primary win means, Ryan insisted, is that he’s really well-liked in the congressional district where he was born and raised and has won election to represent since 1998. He called for the building of a wall along the Mexican border and suggested the deportation of “sharia-compliant” Muslims.
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Paul Ryan, the Republican party’s most senior elected official, has survived an insurgent challenge in his own backyard from an outsider candidate dubbed a “mini-Donald Trump”.
In this July 12, 2016 file photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Federal Election Commission records show Ryan had almost $9.6 million cash on hand and Nehlen had about $176,000 as of July 20, just a few weeks before the primary.
Nehlen’s campaign gathered interest around the nation for his anti-globalist, anti-establishment message, similar to that of Donald Trump.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “Congratulations to my friend Paul Ryan on a well-earned victory”.
Ryan will face Democrat Ryan Solen in November.
Ryan says the victory isn’t a reflection on how Trump will fare in Wisconsin, but rather that “right here in Wisconsin people know me very, very well”.
Political rookie Paul Nehlen’s longshot bid to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan will be the unexpected highlight of the Wisconsin primary.
Ryan’s opponent had been struggling for attention against a popular congressman who rarely even draws a primary challenger in his southeastern Wisconsin district.
While Ryan is likely to win this round, the fissures on display in his race are unlikely to be healed any time soon.
Magney said the law was written to prevent election bribery by showing a vote to get paid to vote a certain way.
He went into the primary with massive advantages in name recognition and money.
Trump relented within days and threw his support behind Ryan, who had been trying to downplay the unusual primary challenge.
But Trump finally gave in to pressure and gave his endorsement last Friday at a rally from which Nehlen was barred.
Ryan was hoping to avoid the same kind of shocking loss that ended then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s political career in 2014, when he lost to a tea party challenger in the primary. He has made a point of returning to Janesville as often as possible to be with his wife and three children, and was initially reluctant to accept the speakership for fear it would keep him away from Wisconsin. Trump did not come up other than Ryan’s mention of him as it relates to trade.
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Ryan supports free trade agreements, while Trump opposes many longstanding trade agreements because he sees them as bad deals.
