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All right, good morning, everyone.
Happy Wednesday.
I'm sure many of you are tired after a long,
but not quite as long night as many of us were hoping
or were expecting.
I'm Matt Fisher, Communications Director
for the Public and Party of Wisconsin
and it's my privilege to welcome you all here
for this press call today to discuss
the results of last night's election
with Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming.
At the end of his remarks and discussions,
there will be time for a Q&A portion
and you will be able to submit questions
using the Q&A feature at the bottom of their screen.
Again, before we begin,
this call is on the record and you may record it.
You may record it, ignore the disclaimer button
at the beginning when you guys logged on.
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to any who have any issues
at the recording this call.
And with that, I'll hand it over to you, Chairman Schimming.
Good morning, everyone.
And thanks for being with us.
A great night last night for President-elect Trump
and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance
and frankly, for the Wisconsin Republican Party.
We're at a point now after two very, very long years
where we became one of at least two and maybe three bricks
in the supposed Midwestern blue wall.
And Wisconsin led the way on that.
As many of you know, Wisconsin is the probably
that was the most competitive of the seven swing states.
And we won a great victory last night for President Trump
and Vice President-elect Vance.
It was done a couple of ways.
A great volunteer network across the state,
across our 72 counties,
works with coalition groups,
terrific staff that we have at the state party.
Fantastic.
Field staff that we have an excellent election integrity
operation.
It's really been the culmination of two years of very, very
hard work.
As I told all of you last year,
we were going to put together the best organization possible
as we came into this presidential election in Wisconsin,
knowing full well that Wisconsin was going to be competitive.
There was no doubt about it.
But we achieved a lot of our goals.
We were the first state in the country to adopt the early vote
initiative put forth by the RNC.
And I think that paid off last night.
I hate to think of where we've been.
Had we not taken the early vote issue seriously.
It's something I championed personally,
literally from the first hour.
I was chairman of the state party.
So that was important building out a field organization of
volunteers and staff that was really just enormously efficient.
And widespread.
I mean, we have thousands and thousands of volunteers statewide
who stepped up to help the president in the various counties
of the ticket in the various counties,
but also an election integrity issues.
We had one of the best election integrity units in the whole
country with multiple paid staff.
Of course, a number of volunteers, thousands of volunteers there.
So I think one of the things that we, you know,
may have learned from last night is, you know,
celebrity visits don't win elections.
I have news for the other side.
Celebrity visits don't win elections.
Auto-state money doesn't always win elections.
They've been spending months on the other side bragging about their
wonderful state organization and getting all this outside money
poured in here.
They lost last night.
In fact, Wisconsin is the state that put Donald Trump over 270
electoral votes last night.
So for all of their braggadocious talk about their wanted field
operation, the truth of the matter is they lost last night.
Not only did they lose them while they were shifting,
we reelected all of our Republican members of Congress
and had a very, very close race for U.S. Senate.
That's not finally declared yet.
But it's obviously a very, very close race.
And the Republicans still control the Wisconsin state Senate and
the Wisconsin state assembly going into a cycle where we'll have
a gubernatorial election next.
There'll be enormous focus on the gubernatorial election and the
AG's election in two years.
So I feel great about last night as do Republicans from around the
country.
I have been deluge with messages from other states around the
country who were watching.
Everyone was watching what was going on in Wisconsin last night.
So we had a lot of emphasis on early vote.
We had a lot of emphasis on field organization, enormous
emphasis on election integrity.
We reopened our North side office in Milwaukee and the African
American neighborhood on the North side of Milwaukee.
We opened our Hispanic office and staffed it, both offices,
but staffed the Hispanic neighborhood office down on the
South side.
Those are efforts that will continue.
As I look at going forward, we're heading into a cycle where we
have obviously a critical Supreme Court race in April that will
decide to control the court between liberals and conservatives.
And I was thinking about that already on the stage last night.
I'm not spending my time thinking about the inaugural or about
any of that.
Right now, I'm thinking literally from the first minute
forward on the Supreme Court race in April.
And of course, the partisan race is gubernatorial race, AG, and
legislative race is two years from now.
I've at the risk of sounding whatever, the same, my first
rodeo.
And I had hoped as I came into this job as state chairman that I
bring two things, a sense of experience that I've had from
being around this for decades.
And also putting the right team together at the state party
to lead us forward.
And we did that.
And I'm proud of our effort.
I'm proud of my staff.
I'm proud of all our volunteers.
Thousands of thousands of volunteers across the state.
There were a lot of people who didn't think we could do this.
As I mentioned before, we are statistically the most competitive
of the seven swing states and that blue brick and that blue wall
is now red in Wisconsin.
And so I'm just pleased that we're where we are right now.
And I'm happy to take any questions that you might have.
Thank you, Chairman Shimming.
We will now open up the floor for questions.
I'll give you all some time to submit them and then we'll
begin here in a few minutes.
You can submit them in the Q&A portion at the bottom of the
chat.
You submit them there and I will read them off to the chairman.
All right.
Our first question comes from Jack Kelly.
The first question is Republicans will return in January with
much narrower majorities in both the assembly and state
Senate.
What do you make of the legislative results and how do you think
it'll impact the upcoming legislative session?
Hard to say.
I'll leave that for legislators to decide the legislative
leadership to decide.
But the majority leadership in the legislature is
Republican in both houses.
So I've been through three reapportionments now where you had
fairly dramatic map changes.
But the Democrats spent the last couple of weeks breaking about
how they might be able to take over the state assembly.
And they didn't.
And frankly, I don't think now that you have a new set of
incumbent legislators and you have maps set.
You know, that is going to be burdened for the Democrats because
they spend weeks and months talking up trying to take a
over at least the assembly anyway.
And they didn't frankly come close to doing it, including
losing some of the key races, the key close races.
So again, more talk from the other side.
But majorities matter in the assembly and the state
Senate.
I've worked in both of those houses and I've worked for three
different Republican governors.
Majorities matter in the legislature and the Democrats don't
have either of them.
So for all the noise making, they have, oh, we picked up some seats
here and there.
The truth of the matter is they had their one moment when they had
a huge turnout to take over this year and they failed in both
houses.
And then we go into our next topic.
There are a couple questions here concerning the U.S.
Senate race here.
There were two, one from Emily fan of CBS 58 and from Brooklyn
and race concerning the recount question here.
According to the AP, according to Brooklyn, according to the AP,
the Wisconsin Senate race is close enough for a recount.
Do you think Eric Hubby will ask for one?
Emily asked, would you like to see a recount in the U.S.
Senate race?
Eric Hubby has yet to declare to feed.
Yeah.
But then I've, uh, part of my experience has been working statewide
recounts, including for President Trump.
Four years ago for David Prouser on his last successful
reelection to the Supreme Court.
Several years back, uh, you know, we'll spend some time with the
Humpty campaign and with our staff, our election integrity staff
and others.
And looking at that issue and see it is a very, very close race.
There's no doubt about that.
And so we'll take a look at that issue, but I just don't have
anything definitive to say now.
I think we'll get a better idea in the next few days.
And also when the canvas is done.
Generally you kind of wait for the canvas and see what the actual
result is based on the reporting awards across the state.
So we're going to gather some information before I think any
decisions, but I'd obviously be talking to Eric out.
Awesome.
Other now.
Another two question.
One topic thing.
Brian, Karen, a Fox 11 and Richard Kramer have also raised the
question of third party candidates in the center race.
Richard's question is Eric Hubby has mentioned Democrats putting a
plant in the center.
What do you make of that claim regarding legal and furthermore,
Karen, Brian, Karen also asked, how do you campaign is accusing
Democrats of siphoning votes with fraudulent candidates?
What course of actions Republicans have moving forward in that
election?
I think really the biggest thing you can do is to make very,
very clear who the Republican candidate is.
And for candidates to kind of call out these situations.
I mean, I think about 53,000 votes.
We're pulled off either for what amounted to a fake candidate
under a fake party name, from what I can see.
And then the, and then another candidate as well.
So you had people voting for Donald Trump and people voting,
you know, for some of those candidates as well.
And I agree with Eric Hubby.
I think that that hurt him.
You know, I would know.
You know, I would say, you know, I would say, you know,
I would say, you know, I would say, I would say, you know,
I agree with Eric Hubby.
I think that that hurt him.
You know, I would note that in the case of Senator of Robert F.
Kennedy, in the case of the presidential race, Robert F.
Kennedy came and made a very, very clear multiple times when he
visited Wisconsin, including last week in Milwaukee and up in
Rice Lake, that people should not vote for him.
They should vote for President Trump, that he had endorsed
President Trump.
And I think in this case, you had some minor party candidates
or candidates with their own self-interest that ran in that
race.
And so as a result, President Trump has one less vote that he can
have in his corner in the U.S.
Senate.
So if somebody thinks the conservative movement is going
forward because we have one less Senate seat, they're sadly
mistaken.
Our next question comes from Zach Schultz.
Political analysts are saying there was a uniform shift to the
right across the nation that helped sweep Trump to victory.
Does that broad brush approach diminish the work your team did
on the ground when Wisconsin?
No, I don't think so at all.
Frankly, our team in Wisconsin was so good.
We didn't spend our time trying to go, wow, it sure seems a little
more conservative around the country.
We didn't spend any time on that topic.
We spent our time in the grassroots, pounding on doors, talking
to people.
I've emphasized not only early vote, but also actually going out
and talking to voters at their doors and talking to them about
our record versus the Democrats record.
I think that's what made the difference.
If there was some benefit from something going on nationally,
a state chairman, I'm more than happy to accept whatever benefit
that we got out of that.
But really this got done because volunteers and staff across
this state went out and taught to over a million and a half
voters, actually over two million voters and got it done.
I think the Democrats remember a year ago all these naval
gazing stories about the Republicans and OG, how are they going
to do under Donald Trump again now that he's come back?
I think that people ought to be asking themselves questions about
where they're heading are the state Democratic Party and the
national Democrats.
They're the ones with the crisis right now.
I'm going to remind everybody on this call.
When we finished our national convention in July here in Milwaukee
within 24 hours, they had pushed Joe Biden out of the presidency,
not just the nominee, but essentially out as President of the
United States and installed a nominee on their side who had
never received a vote anywhere in any race for President in any
state or in any caucus.
So if somebody needs to do some self-examination about where
their party is heading and where their movement is heading,
it's the Democratic Party because they have some serious
problems right now.
And to your point, the breadth of President Trump's victory
around the country, we earned it here in Wisconsin.
But if I was the Democrats in some of the other states and
including Wisconsin, they better do some thinking about where
that because they have lost working people in this country.
And I think as we do further examination of the election
results from all over the state, you will see that and you'll
see it overwhelmingly.
The Democratic Party in this country is in a lot of trouble.
It started last night.
Our next question comes from Michelle Schmidt.
Thanks for the time.
Can you talk a bit about what you saw on a county by county
basis?
Where did Trump and Republicans overperform?
Dean county turnout seemed lower than in 2020.
Any takeaways there?
Yeah.
We'll spend the next couple of days looking at county by county
results.
I will say, though, that I thought the victory, President
Trump's victory in Wisconsin last night was a broader victory
in terms of clear across the state.
You don't just see that in the color maps, but you see it in
some of the results in various communities.
We're going to spend some time with that, not only because we
want to just look at what just happened, but frankly, we want
to plot the course forward.
We have a lot of races coming up in the next two years.
So that's we're going to spend time.
You know, I would remind people, too.
In 2022, obviously we ended up with the Democrat governor, but
that was after a really nasty Republican primary.
The AG's race, we had a very tough Republican primary.
The Democrats did in the Supreme Court race that following April,
what they did last night to Eric Howdy, and they essentially
supported a third, you know, a third party candidate who was posing
as some kind of Republican.
So I would encourage people on this call to look at that issue
about how the Democrats to win have to come in and pose as
something they're not.
In some of these races, they put $2.5 million in the Supreme Court race
going after a conservative candidate and promoting another one.
And that's not a reflection on the individual candidates in that race.
But I think some of the folks on this call to spend some time looking
at that issue because to win in Wisconsin, they seem to be more
interested in trying to distract voters into something that's not
rather than talk to voters about something that is.
Our next question comes from Erin McGrarty.
This touches on something you were mentioning earlier,
Brian, with the upcoming year.
The question is, what is the Wisconsin Republican Party's plan
for the Supreme Court election in April,
given the turnout and spending from Democrats in the last election
that shifted the majority on the bench?
So this is going to be this, of course, this seat that's up is
Zann Walsh, Justice Bradley's seat.
Zann Walsh, Bradley's seat A-liberal.
It is a seat that should be conservative.
Happened to win that seat.
It'll flip control of the court to a more conservative viewpoint.
No doubt about it.
I can tell you, as in past Supreme Court races,
I know our people.
I hear it all the time.
Almost everybody on the skull knows I'm on the road a fair bet.
And I'm talking to local Republicans.
And local groups all the time.
And I think there's enormous interest in making sure the Supreme
Court doesn't stay liberal for effectively the next three years.
So I know for, and I know Judge Schimmel and other folks may be
looking at the court race, but we are in an excellent position
right now as the State Republican Party to assist a candidate for
a Supreme Court and help them win.
You know, we have updated lists and data and our local organizations,
as you can imagine, are pretty excited today about President
Trump's win last night.
So I know that I'll be having some of those discussions as well.
But among the other things I'll be focused on,
we'll be looking at that Supreme Court race,
but also local races in the spring.
We'll be looking at that.
But also local races in the spring.
We funded, we put about half a million dollars in last year in our fourth year
of our local government initiative and helping local candidates win and did
so.
We had several significant victories across the state.
So between the Supreme Court race, local races as well and getting ready
for the governor's race and the AG's race in 2024,
where the Democrats are going to have to decide whether they're going to be
stuck with Tony Evers again.
And Josh Cowell, I'll be interested.
They have a lot of introspection to do on the other side.
And I have a lot of available candidates for a lot of offices.
So we're definitely, we're definitely pretty assertive around here.
And that's, that's the way we're going to stay.
We'll get to our final two questions here.
This one coming from Richard Kramer.
Should the legislature reconsider and pass the Monday count bill or something
akin to it or something like that? Excuse me.
Yeah, that's up to the legislature to decide.
I know, I know there were a number of Republicans who, who had some concerns
about it, but also a number of Republicans who thought, you know,
there might be some use to that.
There was nothing that I saw last night that made me go, Oh,
we have to have the Monday count bill, uh,
to help these elections run more efficiently.
Now, that's something we'll take a look at.
And I think legislators will listen to from around the state,
but there was nothing particular in what I saw last night, uh,
that would make me say the legislature.
Look, you gotta get moving on this thing.
Awesome.
And our final question, uh, we'll come from Brooklyn and race.
You mentioned many things that contributed to their public and party win last night,
but would you say the early vote is the biggest reason you were so successful?
Well, it certainly was a major issue, at least in my mind.
It's why I championed the things since the first day I was chairman.
And that was, as I often say, look, uh, Republicans can't keep going into election
day, a hundred or 200,000 votes down and expect to make it up in 13 hours.
I think frankly, the party needed to cross that bridge and,
and deal with the reality of early vote and the importance of early vote in Wisconsin.
And we did that. It was interesting. I was saying to someone yesterday, you know,
the first six months or so when I was on the road, uh, you know, talking about this,
the Republican groups across the state, uh, it took a little doing, uh,
to be honest, to get that discussion and talking openly about it,
but then we were on to a full on campaign and getting people to early vote.
Those are issues that will be examining as we go forward here,
but I, I think is, was an important factor in that win last night because the more
Republicans who voted early, um, in the presidential race,
the more resources it freed up for us to focus on vote on voters who could be
persuaded or independent voters for folks who haven't voted before,
and at least anecdotally from what I've seen from last night, uh,
that ended up being a very wise decision on our part and it allowed us,
allowed us to get to independent voters, others who hadn't voted before.
Uh, so I think it was a factor, certainly a key factor in the win and by President
Trump in Wisconsin last night.
So I'm excited that the bet that we kind of made two years ago paid off and it paid
off frankly on a, on, you know, a trip to the electoral college.
All righty, that should conclude today's Q and A and today's press call.
Thank you so much for joining us everyone.
Again, if you have any issues with the recording of today's call, uh,
feel free to reach out to me at my email. That's M as in Matthew M.
Fisher at WIS GOP.org, um, or you can the name email members should be in the media
advisory. So feel free to reach out and thank you again for everyone for joining us.
I hope you all can get catch up on some sleep tonight or over the course of the next few days
and have a good rest of your day.
Thank you so much.
Thanks everyone.
Recording stopped.