I'm going.
Did you have the black hats before
Ellen wore them or.
We didn't know?
Because I think I think that those
might have been kind of a thing that
came about.
Okay. Yeah. And we, we found some
and we say, you know, they're really
popular people.
I mean, the red hats are more
popular, I'd say, because they're
classic, but the
black ones are
go well in dark makeup.
Oh. Is that.
Oh I see official term dark maga.
Yeah, I know, I know.
That's what Ellen called them, at
least. So.
Okay.
Is that like a reference on dark
branding kind of thing?
I have no idea.
He just. He got up on stage and I
think it was the.
It was the Madison Square Garden
rally. He was wearing it.
And. Okay, he's.
A dark maga.
I'm dark maga.
All right, it's dark maga.
Interesting.
All right, well, let's talk about
well, let's let's start with quest
for freedom. So obviously we caught
up with you over the summer.
Yeah. What was the feeling like
coming off of November
and then knowing obviously you
knew this race was coming up.
How was that transition in terms of
like starting to remind others
who may have been like, okay, the
election's over and how does that
work for you?
I think coming off of last fall, we
were pretty well positioned heading
into this spring.
We have Brad Schimmel, who's been
just a fantastic candidate,
fantastic campaigner.
He's been out there since last
spring.
So a lot of our, our people
here in the county, in Jefferson
County have already been familiar
with him. He's has been at quite a
number of our events.
He's he's someone who's just a go
getter. He's always, always out
there and wanting to come
to events and especially, you know,
with a favorable result of
of the November election with Trump
winning, I think that really
kind of propelled the momentum
forward quite a bit.
And a lot of people
were just ready and willing to get
back out there and
win again.
Because sometimes there's an issue
with trying to keep a coalition
together.
Like there's that natural, like,
yeah, we were in.
I can take a break.
Did you, would you run into any of
those people if you had to, like,
try and get people back on board at
all?
I think I think like in the
immediate right after the election,
like maybe like November or
December up to Christmas, I think it
was a a little bit challenging
because it's like, you know, there's
the of course, that natural tendency
to want to just rest and
let's just, you know, take a little
break here.
But I like I said, I think
especially, you know, once Trump got
into office, people are starting
to see a lot of the great reforms
that he's been working on.
It really has just excited
and propelled like our grassroots
quite a bit.
Well, and that's winning begets
an attitude that creates more with
it. I mean, it's just it's one of
those makes its own gravy.
Yeah, exactly.
So for you personally,
what have you been doing so far.
And then what's what's in the books
for the rest of the month.
Yes. So I, I've
been since last
couple of months ago here
serving on the the Jefferson
County Republican Party board as the
vice chair.
So I've been helping organize our
grassroots.
We've been doing a lot with yard
signs. We're starting to do
doorknocking now that it's warming
up a little bit.
We've really been organizing a lot
of our local candidates as well,
because it's it's a whole it's
a whole ticket thing.
It's not just at the top, which,
you know, he realizes too, and he's
he's working to support the lower
candidates down, down ballot as
well.
So it's just been a lot of working
as you as you say, you know,
coalition building,
getting everybody back
up and into into a place
where we can just power ahead this
next month and, and bring home a
win.
Is is there a a
delicate balance to reaching out
in an election like this?
Because obviously in a Partizan
election, it's R&D and you may
try and reach over or find
independents, but not everyone
understands nonpartizan
and is not kind of a thing of the
past for these Supreme Court
elections. So there probably
are moderates who may have voted for
a Democrat or for Senate or for
president who are who are more open
on the Supreme Court.
How do you make sure that you're not
putting them off when
obviously you hear it's like it's
Trump and Schumer, but out there,
like you, there's room for people
that may have voted for ten people
to vote for Schimmel.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think I think this
is some especially when, you know, I
know you asked about Jamal, but
just even looking at like some of
that down to some of the local
candidates we
have, and it more so happens with
them because you have, you know,
with Schimmel, it's up ballot.
And, you know, most people kind of
know where the allegiance is.
Lie. Schimmel versus Crawford.
But, you know, we even we even have
a lot of people reach out and
and asking, okay, look, I'm
a Republican. Who are my candidates?
Who who do we vote for?
So, yeah, there is a little bit
of a balance because we're not only
trying to like, get
get the Trump voters back to voting
for Schimmel. We're also trying to
reach across.
And there may be people that are
that think, well, you know, we want
someone who's a little bit more
tough on crime because crime
is a big issue for Wisconsin
specifically. And, you know, someone
like Schimmel, who has a proven
record of being tough on crime
and spending his life, you know,
locking up violent,
criminal, violent criminals,
essentially.
That's that's someone that those
types of people want. So we are
spending a good deal of
time and energy messaging
and reaching out to those more
moderates and even Democrats.
And we're hearing some terrible
things.
So I know last
summer or last fall, there was
always that that concern
of like, would Republicans that
hadn't always, like Trump come
around and would they come along
begrudgingly because of what they
didn't like on the other side, or
would they actually get in behind
once they saw what he could actually
do?
Are you seeing is there
been any slippage whatsoever?
I know that we're only a month or
so, but has there been any slippage
in terms of the people who
came on board for Trump, like
seeing the results are seeing what
he's done and saying, I'm all.
And still.
To be honest with you, I've seen,
I've seen honestly, even a more
united front for sure.
Because you're right, we did have
those people. They were few and far
between, but there were people
that would be like I for
all the other Republican candidates,
I'm not going to vote for Trump.
And with Schimmel, it just it seems
like he's been out there.
He's been working. He's been edging
off any primary challengers
because primary challengers was the
biggest thing that any,
you know, that Trump had really, any
Republican candidate or conservative
candidates going to face is
a primary challenger.
So because he was out there and he's
been out there working, people
see that and they realize that and
I, I to be completely honest with
you, I think we are you know,
I think that Schimmel is in
probably a better place than any
Republican conservative candidate
I've seen in a long while here in
Wisconsin.
And that's not just in terms of
advertising dollars, which he
certainly is, but the ground game
still, it's the ground game matters,
right?
It sure does. It's and I think
that's I think that's something
that's very easy to forget,
especially, you know, with
a lot of the media talking about,
you know, why so-and-so is spending
X amount of dollars on advertising
and media. It's it's very easy to
forget that the ground game matters,
that getting out there do an old
fashioned knocking on someone's
door, making the phone calls,
sending the postcards out.
It all matters.
Is it easier to do that
when you're coming off a victory?
It definitely is.
It was coming
off like coming off a 2020.
It was a little I remember calli, it
was a little rough, but it it
feels good. I feel like we're
in a, in an awesome place right now.
And you know, as, as President
Trump says, you know, you know, I
hope we don't get tired of all this.
Winning
is there.
We went through a long stretch where
conservatives control the Wisconsin
Supreme Court.
And we've had this one two year
stretch where the liberals have
flipped it.
The fact that that exists, and you
can point to here's what we saw
you do.
Does that help the message
is instead of just the fear of what
may be, it's like, no, here's the
actual evidence of what happened.
Yeah. Well, and I think what helps
it more than anything is you just
look at the last, what,
about two years here?
What? You know that we've had a
liberal Supreme Court in power and
just see what they've done.
You can point to concrete things.
You can point to. We've got the
redistricting. We have the
act ten.
There are there's just so many
number of other cases that are
coming down the pike here with the
with the Supreme Court that they've
already
said they're going to take action on
it. They have taken action on that,
that we can point right to those
things and say, look,
you're only going to get more of
this. You're only going to get more
of this, this radical liberalism.
If we elect,
you know, another liberal to the
court, instead of flipping it back
to conservative control, we're going
to save Wisconsin money if we flip
it back.
So you were also a part of the Young
Republicans.
What what's happened there is that
how is that group going and what
what do you. Because young people
are usually the hardest to remind.
Yes. There's an election in the
spring.
Yeah.
How's that going?
It's it's it's going very well.
And as a matter of fact, we actually
we're we're very excited.
We're having a I
will work with the National Young
Republicans to do a big
deployment. They, as they call them,
of young Republicans
into Wisconsin.
And we will be bringing hundreds of
them from across the country.
And I was actually I was actually
just at our spring meeting this over
the weekend to try to recruit more
people. And we are
people are people
are excited to come out and help
with that because it really is,
especially now with
with the threat of possibly
more redistricting.
And
she's out campaigning on it that
she's getting she wants to
essentially do redistricting so that
Brian Style and Derek Fenton ought
to lose their congressional seats.
We had a very slim majority
in the House right now.
If we lose those two seats, that
could be it.
So I think the message, you know,
Save Wisconsin, We Save America
is really resonating with the with
the young people.
Not only here in Wisconsin but
across the country.
So the momentum here is, is
still building. We're out as young
Republicans every single weekend
on doors, knocking doors for for
Schimmel and for our other local
candidates.
And we're getting bigger and bigger
crowds of of young people
to come and help every week.
So does it seem weird to think
that ten, 15 years
ago, like
the candidate would have been like,
please don't tell them you're a
Republican. And like, let's let's
keep the GOP out
of the equation here.
I think this is something that,
honestly, the Democrat Party has
done.
I don't like to say they've done
things well often, but
they have done
for a while a better job than than
Republicans on.
Getting their local candidates
across the board and working also in
these nonpartisan races to get their
their liberal leaning candidates
across the board.
And this is something in the past
couple of years the Republicans have
really picked up on, as you noted,
where we are, we're
working now to to get our
conservative candidates in.
And it is a little
it is a little interesting to think,
because I've really only been around
politics maybe about ten years,
and all that falls into the time
frame where, yeah, these candidates
are, you know, more than happy to
have their, you know, Republican
Party tied to their name.
So it is a little weird to think
that there used to be an era where
there was kind of that push back.
For sure. It was a vehement push
back. If you even like
they would get you would argue with
them over whether, like Shirley
Abramson would argue, whether I
could see she was part of a liberal
faction and
know Prosser like Prosser.
And I would have long conversations
about, well, I'm a conservative,
not a political answer.
Yeah. The former senator.
Yeah. Well, I, I think, you
know, what it comes down to is it
really comes down to
these candidates.
They realize that they they need
the grassroots movement.
They need the grassroots resources
there that the Republican Party can
offer Or that, you know
the party can't offer, essentially.
They can't rebuild it on their own.
They can't. I mean, we are like
you look at the Republican Party.
72 counties have their
own county party structure, many of
them with hundreds, if not thousands
of volunteers willing to get out
there. And, and, you know, get get
some boots on the
street, knock doors, put up signs,
get candidates.
It's very hard in the typical life
span of a campaign for them
to rebuild anything like that on
their own. So it's really a team
effort. Okay.
Anything else you want to add?
I don't I don't think so.
Okay. Yeah.
Can I get you usual?
Say spell your name. Give your
title. Yes.
Correct. Yep.
John Beauchamp j o
n b e a.
You see a champ.
A title. Vice chair of the Jefferson
County Republican Party.
And the chair of the Jefferson
County Young Republicans.
Perfect.
All right.
So we need actually, if we want to
get some.
Yes. Oh, yeah.
You want me to put some of the signs.
For the signs, and.
Then we keep the mic on?