At WisGOP convention, top Republicans call on party to mend divisions
Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming called on Wisconsin Republicans to focus and move forward to elections next year, saying they "won the country last November and saved America. Next year, we can save Wisconsin." Schimming and state Treasurer John Leiber speak to reporters at the RNC in 2024. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin's Republicans urged party members to put aside their differences over the weekend, saying that unity will be necessary if they want to win the 2026 elections for governor, Congress and the state Legislature.
The state party reflected on recent elections as they met in Rothschild, Wisconsin. Many of the state's top Republicans delivered glowing reviews of Trump's first few months in office and celebrated Wisconsin's role in helping reelect him.
'We are seeing President Trump honor the promises he made,' U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said. 'That was made possible because of people like you that delivered the 10 electoral votes to President Trump of Wisconsin.'
Despite Trump carrying the state in November, the state party is reeling from recent losses.
Johnson called the April Wisconsin Supreme Court election 'stinging' and a 'crushing defeat.'
Republicans' preferred candidate Brad Schimel lost his bid for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by nearly 10 percentage points, solidifying a liberal majority on the Court at least until 2027. It was the third Supreme Court election in a row that conservatives lost after Dan Kelly was defeated by double digits in both 2020 and 2023. The Republican-endorsed candidate for the spring state Superintendent race, Brittany Kinser, also lost in April. Kinser, a school choice advocate, thanked the party for its help at the convention.
'There's no way you can sugarcoat that,' Johnson said.
Johnson said the results were because of 'voters who came out to try and save America by electing Donald Trump' but didn't come out to vote in April to 'ensure that [Trump] would have four years where he could implement his agenda without possibly the majority shifting in the House.' He said the party needs to work to get voters out in non-presidential elections. , especially as Trump is in his second term and is barred from running again by the U.S. Constitution.
'As much as many would want Donald Trump to be on the ballot again, he won't be. He won't be, and we're going to figure out how we win, but without Donald Trump on the ballot here in Wisconsin, so that's just a hard truth,' Johnson said.
Following the April losses, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming came under scrutiny by some party members who blamed him for the results. Some at the convention circulated a paper seeking a vote of no confidence in Schimming though the effort never came to fruition.
Fights within county parties have also broken out since the April elections. Those divisions were on display at the convention as some from a local county party sought to keep Kelly Ruh, the party treasurer and one of the people to serve as a fake elector for Trump in 2020, from being seated as a delegate. Her supporters said it was 'absurd' that members of the party would seek to block their own treasurer from voting, while others said she shouldn't be seated because to do so would subvert the vote taken by the county party. The full convention voted to seat her anyway.
'There's always power struggles,' Johnson, who declined to take sides in any fights, said. 'But I have to admit in the 15 years since I entered the political process, I've never seen as many squabbles.'
Johnson warned that the party won't be able to win if Republicans are 'disunified.'
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden echoed Johnson's calls for unity, saying that people didn't vote because Republicans were fighting.
'If I hear one more person, say, RINO [an acronym for Republican in Name Only], you're gonna get the horn,' Van Orden said. 'Knock it off. We are Republicans who are Americans who are patriots. We love our country. We love our families. We love our communities.'
Wisconsin RNC Chairman Terry Dittrich said Republicans need to up their game and don't have time to waste ahead of 2026.
'We stop the infighting. We start working together. We welcome the youth in. We pay attention to our goal… to make sure President Trump can finish his job in four years and go on with JD Vance for another four years and another four years and another four years,' Dittrich said. 'Let's all unify.'
State Treasurer John Leiber is leading an effort to examine the recent losses — a job he was assigned by Schimming. At the convention, Leiber cautioned party members against 'pointing fingers' at others.
'That doesn't help anyone… What I'm focused on is how we can use that experience, learn from it and figure out how to win in 2026,' Leiber said.
Lieber said his committee is working to gather information and data to understand ways of making progress, and he asked attendees to fill out a handout to provide feedback. He noted that he is up for reelection in 2026.
'I want to win, so I don't have any reason to try to smooth things over or sugarcoat. If anything I want to identify what exactly we need to do, what we can do better, how we do it better, and identify the ways that we can all work together to accomplish our goal, which is of course winning,' Leiber said.
Schimming said that the party has to be honest about the April elections and the frustration about them. But he said Republicans need to focus and move forward to win the next election.
'Doesn't mean we agree on everything. Doesn't mean we shouldn't change tactics or strategies, but it means we gotta look forward… We're gonna work together. We're gonna listen. We're going to lead. We're going to lead, and we're going to do what it takes to win. We won the country last November and saved America. Next year, we can save Wisconsin,' Schimming said.
The calls for unity come during an off year for Wisconsin elections but also as crucial gubernatorial and state legislative races lie ahead in November 2026. A race for the state Supreme Court will also take place in April with Justice Rebecca Bradley up for reelection, though that race, which won't tip the ideological balance of the Court, wasn't a prominent focus at the convention.
Gov. Tony Evers has yet to decide whether he will run for a third term, but Republicans are intent on putting a Republican in office, whether that means ousting Evers or defeating another Democratic candidate. So far, only one Republican, Washington Co. Executive Josh Schoemann, has launched his campaign for the office.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is also considering a run for governor and spent the majority of his time on stage at the convention taking jabs at Evers.
'The question — as we have this great reset led by President Trump — is will Wisconsin be one of the winners?' Tiffany said. 'Will Wisconsin be one of the winners like Texas and South Dakota, Tennessee, Florida? States like that are winning, people are moving to those states, businesses are growing, people want to be there. Are we going to be one of those states or are we going to be like the losers in Illinois and Minnesota?'
'We all know what the problems are. The question is how are we going to fix it?' Tiffany said. 'We can fix it easily by replacing Tony Evers in 2026.'
U.S. Rep. Tony Wied from Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District said Republicans need to keep up their momentum into the next year, and in the race for governor the 'fight starts right now' and can't wait.
'We have a governor who refuses to even say the word mother,' Wied said, referring to Evers' proposal to update language in state laws related to infertility treatments, 'who fights the Trump administration at every single turn, who would rather protect illegal aliens than hard-working Wisconsinites.
State Rep. Mark Born (R-Spring Green) and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) were also critical of Evers during a panel discussion. Born said he introduced a 'ridiculous budget again' that included 'reckless spending,' and 'massive policy trying to rewrite everything that's happened in the state in the last more than a decade now.' LeMahieu said that Evers is trying to 'turn us into Minnesota, turn us into Illinois — states that have out of control spending.'
'If you could think of a dumb idea for government, the governor probably had it in his budget,' Born said.
Lawmakers said it would be essential they keep control of the Senate and Assembly to continue to stop Democrats' agenda.
Running under new legislative maps in 2024, Republican lawmakers lost 14 state legislative seats in the last elections — leaving them with slimmer majorities in the Senate and Assembly. In 2026, Democrats are seeking to flip the Assembly, which currently has a 54-45 Republican majority, and the Senate, which currently has an 18-15 Republican majority.
'We're going to be up against it this next year, but we're out there fighting, knocking on doors. We are the firewall against really horrible liberal policies coming into Wisconsin,' LeMahieu said.
The Senate will be particularly crucial as it will be the first time the new district lines are in place for the half of the seats up for election. While addressing the convention, former Gov. Tommy Thompson said some have been telling him that they are afraid they will lose the state Senate.
'Don't even think that way,' Thompson said. 'We are winners, not losers. We're going to campaign. We are going to unite… and we're going to win.'
Republicans were complimentary of Trump's first few months in office, including his efforts to detain and deport noncitizens, bar transgender people from certain spaces, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and cut investments in social programs.
Wied said the border is 'more secure than at any other point in history.'
'Trump is doing what he said he would do. Under President Trump and Republican leadership, illegal immigrants will no longer be given a free pass in this country,' Wied said. 'If you break the law, you are going to face consequences.'
'Isn't it great that border crossings are going down and deportations are going up?' Tiffany asked. 'Isn't it great to live in America like that?
Johnson was not completely on board with everything Trump is doing, expressing concern about the cost of the so-called 'big beautiful bill' Trump is working to get through Congress, which using the budget reconciliation process to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, increase funding for immigration enforcement, expand work requirements for food assistance and cut Medicaid costs by implementing work requirements.
'The big, beautiful bill isn't what it's advertised to be,' Johnson said. 'We're not going to be bending the debt curve down. We would be exacerbating the problem by a total of about $4 trillion over the next 10 years.'
Splitting from Johnson, Van Orden said that Republicans should also be united on Trump's bill.
'We don't need grandstanders in the Republican party — stop talking and get it done,' Van Orden said, echoing Trump.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina delivered a keynote address to the convention, praising Trump for his immigration policies and his efforts to stop transgender women from participating on women's sports teams. Mace is known for seeking to bar transgender people from certain spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms, and targeting her Democratic transgender colleague in the House of Representatives and other transgender individuals.
'I like an immigration policy kind of how I like my sweet tea — with a lot of ICE,' Mace said, playing on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
'There has never been a president stronger than Donald Trump. They impeached him. They raided his home. They indicted him. They even shot him, and the man still survived. He stood tall. We prayed for him every single time, because no weapon formed against him shall ever prosper,' Mace said. 'Trump is back. He's securing the border. He's deporting illegals. He's protecting women's sports, and he's declaring there are only two genders, and DEI under Donald J Trump is DOA.'
Mace, who noted she's considering running for governor of South Carolina in the future, took her comments further telling convention goers that the U.S. is in a battle.
'It's not necessarily a battle between the parties or left and right or ideology. It is a battle between good and between evil, and we cannot allow this evil to win,' Mace said.
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