I'm going did you have the black hats before Elon or them or those we didn't know cuz I think I
think that those might have been the kind of I think that came up oh yeah and we found some and
we say you know they're really popular people sure I mean the red hats are more popular I'd say
because they're classic but the black ones are dark mega oh I see official term dark mega
yeah okay now I know that's what Elon called him at least okay is that like a reference on dark
branding kind of thing I have no idea he just he got up on stage you know I think it was the it
was the Madison Square Garden where like he was wearing it okay he's like dark mega I'm dark
mega all right it's dark mega interesting all right well let's talk about well let's let's start
with last fall for you it's obviously we caught up with you over the summer yeah what was the 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 is over how does that work for you I think coming off of last fall we were pretty well
positioned heading in into this spring we have Brad Schimmel has 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 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 that with the favorable result 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 then win again because there sometimes
is an issue with trying to keep a coalition together like there's that natural like yay we won I can
take a break did you would you run into 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 December up to Christmas I think it was a little bit challenging because it's like you
know there's 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 when 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 and attitude that creates
more win yes it's just that's one of those makes its own gravy kind of things 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 months ago here serving on the Jefferson County Republican
party board as a vice chair so I've been helping organize our grassroots we've been doing a lot
with yard signs we're starting to do door knocking 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 shimmel 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 partisan election it's R&D you may
try and reach over find independence but not everyone understands nonpartisan is not a kind of a thing
of the past for these Supreme Court elections so there probably are moderates who may have voted
for a Democrats for for Senate or for president who are more open on the Supreme Court how do you
make sure they're not putting them off when obviously in here it's like it's Trump and shimmel
but out there like yeah there's room for people that may have voted for Tammy yeah to vote for
shimmel yeah absolutely and I think I think this is some especially when you know I know you asked
about shimmel 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 with shimmel it's up ballot
you know most people kind of know where the allegiance is lies shimmel versus Crawford
but you know we even we even have a lot of people reach out and and ask him hey like 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 shimmel 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 shimmel who has a proven record of being tough on crime and spending his
life you know locking up violent criminal just 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 favorable things
so I know last summer and last fall there was always that that concern of like would
Republicans that hadn't always liked Trump come around and would they come along be grudgingly
because of what they didn't like on the other side or would they actually get him behind once
they saw what he could actually do are you seeing is there been any slippage whatsoever I know it's
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 or seeing what he's done and saying I'm all in still to be honest
with you I've seen I've seen honestly even a more united front for shimmel because you're right we
did have those people they were few and far between but there were people that would be like I
vote for all the other Republican candidates I'm not going to vote for Trump and with shimmel 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 and
really any Republican candidate or conservative candidate's gonna 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 to be completely honest with you I think we are you know I think that shimmel 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
the ground game matters right it sure does it's and and I think that's I think that's
something that's very easy to forget especially you know and with a lot of the media talking about
you know and so-and-so is spending X amount of dollars on advertising and mediates it's very
easy to forget that the ground game matters that getting out there doing the 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 um
coming off a like coming off of 2020 it was a little I'm not gonna collide it was a little
rough but um it it feels good I feel like we're in an awesome place right now and you know as
as President Trump says you know I hope we don't get tired of all this winning
is there we went through a long stretch where conservatives controlled the Wisconsin Supreme
Court and then 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 and do does that help
the message because instead of just the fear of what may be it's like no here's the actual
evidence of what happens 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 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 um act 10 there are there's just so many number of other cases
that are coming down the pike here with this with the supreme court that they've already
said they're going to take action on or that they have taken action on that that we can point
right to those things and say look um you're only going to get more of this you're only
going to get more of this this radical liberalism if we elect um 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 are also part of the young republicans what what's happened there is that
how's that group going and what what is young people usually the hardest to remind that there's
an election in the spring yeah how's that going um it's it's it's going very well and as a matter
of fact um we actually we're very excited we're having a um a we're working with the national
young republicans to do a big um deployment they as they call them of uh young republicans into
Wisconsin we're going to be bringing hundreds of them from across the uh country um and i was
actually was actually just at our spring meeting this over the the weekend to try to recruit more
people and we are um people are people are excited to come out and help with that because it really
is especially uh now with uh with the threat of possibly more redistricting and um
she's out campaigning on it that she's getting she wants to essentially do redistricting so that
brian style and derry fennord and lose their congressional seats we're at 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 it with the young people um 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 shimmel and for our other local
candidates and we're getting bigger and bigger crowds of of um young people to come and help
every week so does it seem weird to think that 10 15 years ago like the candidate would have been
like please don't tell them you're a republican like let's let's keep the GOP out of the equation
here i think this is something that um honestly the democrat party has um done i don't like to say
they've done things well often but um they have done um uh for a while a better job than
then republicans on um 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 years the republicans have really picked up on as you
noted um where we are um we're working now to to get our conservative candidates in and um it is a
little it is a little interesting to think because i've i've really only been around politics maybe
about 10 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 arrow where there was kind of that pushback for sure it was a
vehement pushback like if you even like they would get you would argue with them over where they're
like surely aprons would argue whether i could say she was part of a liberal faction and you know
prosser like prosser and i would have long conversations about well i'm a judicial conservative
not a political conservative yeah the former assembly yeah but well and i and i think you know
what it comes down to is it really comes down to um 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 offer essentially they can't rebuild it on their
they can't it's 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 gets get some boots on the street
knock doors put up signs get it's it's very hard in the typical lifespan 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 um can i get to usual say
spell your name give your title yes so i have a correct yep um john bow shamp j oh h and b e a
u c h a m p um title vice chair of the jefferson county republican party um and the chair of the
jefferson county young republicans perfect all right so we need for actually if we want to get some
yes oh yeah do you want me to put some of the science we have to get some of the science
do you want me to keep the mic on