How will the U.S. Senate and congressional races shape up in Wisconsin?
And how will the top of the ticket inform those elections?
We turn to Trigvi Olson, Wisconsin native former senior Republican advisor, and now with
the anti-Trump organization, the Lincoln Project.
And thanks very much for being here.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
So you are a former GOP advisor, but no more.
Why not?
You know, I still consider myself a conservative, but I don't really recognize the Republican
party today.
And I know Ronald Reagan used to say that the Democratic party had left him.
I feel in many ways like the Republican party has left me.
I've had the chance coming out of Wisconsin to get to travel and work and live around
the world.
And you know, things like in places like Ukraine and Russia with those fighting for
democracy.
And you know, that piece of the Republican party has left, that Reagan piece through
strength sort of bipartisan.
The Republican party is no longer that.
So that was really a big piece of it for me.
So you know a lot about Wisconsin politics and politicians.
What is it about our electorate here that makes Donald Trump run so even in this state,
which elected a Democratic governor and one of its U.S. senators?
Yes.
So I think one of the things that I say often to people when we talk about Wisconsin, and
I can tell you since really since 2020, when we founded the Lincoln Institute, and we started
we've been talking about Wisconsin a lot because it's ground zero, you know, Wisconsin tends
to be a right of slightly right of center state.
You have a lot of people, my best friends are all, but my buddies are all still up in
River Falls and a lot of them voted for Tony Evers and Ron Johnson, a lot of them voted
for Trump in 16 and voted for Biden in 20.
And a lot of them will vote for Tammy Baldwin, some of them for some of them Tammy Baldwin
is the first Democrat they ever voted for.
They tend to be, you know, traditionally get more to the right of center.
They don't like a lot of government interference in their lives.
They don't want government telling them what kind of shock they're going to own.
Although more recently post-Dobs, quite frankly, the ones who have daughters don't want some
theocrat from the state legislature telling their daughters what they can and can't do.
So I just think it's the nature of Wisconsin.
I will say to you, though, one of the things from all my experiences traveling around
the world, I am glad that if the decision about what happens with democracy in the
United States is going to be made anywhere, I'm glad it's going to be made with people
in Wisconsin who take that kind of thing very seriously.
As for the U.S. Senate race, of which we just spoke, what do you make of Tammy Baldwin's
prospects for reelection?
Oh, you know, I mean, Tammy Baldwin is probably and granted on partial since I came out of
Tommy Thompson world.
I think she's the most sort of organically talented politician we've had in the state
of Wisconsin since Tommy Thompson.
You know, up where I'm from, Tammy Baldwin has lots of sport amongst Republicans and
sort of those right-of-center Evers Johnson voters who determine elections in the state,
in large part because she's out there working constantly.
And quite frankly, this might embarrass Tammy Baldwin, but quite frankly, a lot of
the guys know that she came by Johnny's bar during the back and came and drank a beer
with a bunch of them, right?
Well, it can be more Wisconsin politician than that.
So yeah, I think Tammy Baldwin's prospects are pretty strong, you know, and I think Eric
Hubby is not only is he maybe out of staff with the state of Wisconsin in terms of his
politics being too mega, but in addition to that, you know, I think, you know, people
in Wisconsin catch somebody who's from the outside and I just think he was in, he's
been in Orange County probably too long to fully get it, whereas no one's going to question
Tammy Baldwin being in Wisconsin.
So with all of that said, does Tammy Baldwin help Harris in this state and potentially
down ballot as well?
I certainly think that she can help Harris in the top of the ticket and quite frankly,
that's something, you know, in my linking project capacity, I really end up spending
a lot of time focused on four states, Wisconsin being one of them, Michigan, Pennsylvania and
Arizona being the others.
In all of those, you have Democratic Senate candidates, Tammy Baldwin, probably the strongest
of the bunch, who are running ahead of the National Democratic Party ticket.
I think in the last Mark Hep poll, you know, Tammy might be a couple points ahead.
I think what Tammy Baldwin, Slotkin, Casey and Gallego, who are the Democrats and the
others, what they all represent is the ceiling really for Democrats.
And so, you know, one of the things I was saying to some reporters at the convention,
I was getting asked about a convention balance because Harris walls has had a couple of,
you know, it's had probably four unprecedented weeks in terms of balance.
I think there's still some room to grow in states like Wisconsin because, you know,
they can get closer, Harris walls can get closer to that 52 that Baldwin is at.
I think that's the ceiling.
All right.
Well, Trigby Olson, thanks very much for your expertise.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Yes, I love it that you're from River Falls.
Thank you.
Where are you from?
I'm from Madison.
But are you?
Did you grow up in Madison?
I did.
Yep.
Were you a memorial kid or a East kid West kid or where were you from?
This is a, this is like a trick question for me because I would have gone to a memorial.
I was a memorial kid, but my dad was a professor and he moved overseas to work for the land.
So I went to like prep schools.
Yeah.
Terrible.
Addison Memorial was a big rival and hockey back in the mid 80s along with superior with
River Falls.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, Claire.
Yeah.
Oh, Claire Memorial more than North.
North or Memorial or Regis?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was back when like when I was playing was like Andy Acrobat, who was a heck of a hockey
player.
Um, that was a long time ago.
Well, I know that I know that every morning after my beer league game, when I try and
get out of bed, I think it was a long time ago.
I'm never going to answer that question, honestly, I hate that.
But anyway, I'm just going to say I went to memorial.
Yeah.
All right.
That's a good answer.
Yeah.
Well, thanks for having me on, guys.
Thank you.
It would be great to hook up some and meet up sometime when I'm down in Madison.
I'm there every couple of weeks in Wisconsin.
Good deal.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
All right.
Thank you guys.
Okay.
Bye.