Thanks, everyone.
Because it's one.
Brian Schimming, thanks very much for being here.
So great to be here, thanks for having me.
So we know Wisconsin is important,
but just how important is Wisconsin this election?
Well, I always like to say,
Wisconsin's not one of 50 states this year,
we're one of five.
It's probably more like seven.
But the terms of the matter is, in Wisconsin,
in the last 24 years,
we've had 12 statewide races for about 6 million people.
We've had 12 races in the last 25 years
that were decided by 30,000 votes or less.
So we are one of a handful of states.
We are certainly a state
that have had a lot of close races,
including Ron Johnson's two years ago.
So I'm certainly feeling the attention nationally,
and I like that.
It's good for us.
And frankly, as you know,
it's why the Republican National Convention
is coming to Milwaukee.
What's at stake up and down the ballot here?
Just about everything.
It's interesting.
I was saying the other day that, you know,
here we are in Wisconsin.
Remember, we used to be called fly over country.
Remember those years?
Now we're kind of fly in country,
but there's a reason.
We have a close presidential race.
I think by anybody's telling,
it's a close race here in Wisconsin.
We have a close US Senate race,
which six months ago,
people wouldn't have guessed,
but that we instantly had a close US Senate race.
Two target house races,
obviously both houses of the legislature.
So Wisconsin, almost more than usual,
is really a focus of national attention.
We feel it at the state party, too.
You were just talking with me about money.
Will Republicans in Wisconsin
start to see the spigot flow?
Yeah, I mean, we're feeling already
in terms of the support nationally.
The great thing for us
with the new leadership
of the Republican National Committee,
Mike Wadley,
they are completely focused.
Not just us, of course,
but other target states as well.
So we just hired new political director this week.
We're hiring additional field staff.
We're actually one of the more built-out states
in the country already on field staff,
opening local offices.
So, yeah, I mean,
we'll have the resources we need.
Which voters, other than all of them,
will Republicans be specifically kind of targeting?
Well, all of them is the right answer,
but the truth is,
I think the challenge for the Democrats,
you see it in polling here in the state,
at poll, as well as national polls,
the president's hurting
with a lot of his base groups.
Young people, very, very close
between the President Trump,
Hispanics as well.
Biden is not doing nearly as well as he did
with women when he first ran.
So as you look at those different groups,
there are plenty of opportunities for Republicans.
But as I say to Republicans around the state,
you have to go get those voters.
You can't count on them
not being unhappy with the incumbent or whatever,
but they are very, very unhappy with the incumbent.
Speaking of voters,
you have been pushing early voting for months,
which is a total sea change for Republicans.
But the Republican Party of Wisconsin also officially opposed
the use of ballot drop boxes
in a case before the state Supreme Court.
Now, I understand you are in support of those.
What's the actual deal here?
No, we oppose the drop boxes
because we feel as though there are,
that possibly is a subject for some fraud.
But almost more importantly,
here we are just a couple of months for the election again.
And the state Supreme Court is acting like a second legislature
and going in and changing campaign laws.
Frankly, I don't think the drop-offs issue
will be the last one we see from this Supreme Court.
So I think there's a legitimate issue,
and I get that some clerks around the state
that they don't want all these changes to the law made
and they run up to the election.
But we've opposed drop boxes, but to your point,
I say to Republicans across the state,
I was the first state chairman of the country
to push early vote.
And whether it's drop boxes or other potential changes,
I have to deal with the laws as they are,
and I'm going to.
And so that means you're saying you are promoting early voting,
and if it turns out that drop boxes are legal again,
you say, go ahead and drop your ballot.
I don't know that I'm necessarily encouraging drop boxes.
We're working on how we use that strategy
as we go forward, but I will be dealing with laws
assuming there are some changes,
and I wouldn't be surprised if there were.
Now you say that Wisconsin Republican voters
are all in on Donald Trump.
What about our spring primary where Nikki Haley
got 13% of the vote?
Yeah, you saw that in states around the country.
I wasn't completely surprised by that.
What counts for us is what we see on the polling
and in the internal polling, which has Donald Trump
in the 90s in the percentile that we need to win the state.
So our base that we see in our numbers anyway
is very hard for Donald Trump.
Joe Biden has a serious, serious problem
with his base voters to the subject we dealt with before.
That's a huge problem for them,
and it's showing here in Wisconsin.
So if your internal polling shows that,
does that suggest that Republicans have forgiven
and forgotten January 6 and all that happened before and after?
Yeah, I don't know.
It's a matter of all those things that they're goofing around with
in the courts.
It's not a matter of forgiving or anything.
You know what's interesting about this race?
It's not the typical incumbent challenger race, right?
It's essentially a race between two incumbencies.
And what we see in the polling is that people now know
they didn't know four years ago.
Now they know what they were going to get with Joe Biden,
which has been high inflation, high interest rates,
bad GDP numbers.
Now they know what they're getting between the two,
and that's working for President Trump.
What about these court cases,
like the one that President Trump is currently
sitting in a courtroom with?
That doesn't matter to Republican voters.
Well, it's not a matter of whether it matters to Republican voters.
It's a matter, and you see this in the national polling right now.
People have factored it in.
It's overwhelming, actually, that people have factored it in.
If that was a problem, if every court case that was filed
against Donald Trump was a problem,
he'd be 20 points behind right now,
and the people are saying we've had enough of the law fair.
As to Wisconsin's key Senate race,
other Republicans on our air have said that it would be very,
very tough to beat Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin.
You obviously don't think that.
I don't.
In fact, I was telling reporters last fall,
I reminded a few of the other day at a press conference,
I was telling folks, look, if the Senate race gets real,
we have the right level candidate to run a competitive race
against Tammy Baldwin, she's in trouble.
And the first three polls that came out put the race,
the first one was about six points,
and then the others were three and one.
So it's essentially a toss-up on that race,
and the resources will be there to run that race.
I mean, Tammy Baldwin's numbers collapsed immediately
after she got a tough opponent in the race,
and that has turned that into the one of the most competitive
U.S. Senate races in the country.
Even four or five months ago,
people were saying Tammy's too tough to beat,
the polling doesn't show that,
and she's a 95% voter with Joe Biden.
How do you think Wisconsin's new maps will change the legislature?
Yeah, I think it's hard to tell.
I think the Senate seems like it's a little better,
the Senate Republicans are a little better position,
or in an okay position.
The assembly, I think, is more competitive,
and as you know, I've done a lot of assembly races
that are on the state, so I'm familiar with the assembly.
But the Democrats, I feel as though we'll keep both,
and the Democrats are going to have to find another excuse
for losing, because I think we will be victorious in both houses.
And I know the state very, very well, and while you're right,
I think the numbers will change,
those that automatically flip houses, I don't think so.
We will watch.
In this pivotal election year,
what is it like for Republicans to be hosting
the National Convention in Milwaukee?
Well, as you know, I'm a homer,
so I'm all about having the convention in Milwaukee.
In fact, when I was doing radio in Milwaukee,
when the Democrats announced in Milwaukee,
I was even happy about that,
because I wanted it to be good for Milwaukee
and for the whole state.
The Republican Convention will be too.
I'm excited, obviously, state chairman,
to be hosting the National Convention.
But its money, about $200 million spent,
is 50,000 people coming to the state.
But even more just, you know, for the Wisconsin economy,
it's terrific, the whole world.
Not just the country, the whole world will be watching Wisconsin
and for Republicans.
It's a way to pull our message together
in front of a national audience with a five-day show
that I think is just going to be great for Wisconsin.
I'm so excited.
Alright, Brian Schimming.
Thanks very much.
So good to see you.