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Trump-backed businessman Tim Michels is the expected winner in Wisconsin’s GOP gubernatorial primary.
Michels and former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch were the front-runners in a field of four Republican candidates that included state lawmaker Timothy Ramtun.
Michels will face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November, who has not faced a primary challenge but is heavily targeted by Republicans as he seeks a second term.
The battle for the GOP nomination for governor of Wisconsin was the latest test of Republican influence between former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, former running mates who could potentially face each other for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
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Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, left, speaks as former President Donald Trump, right, listens at a rally in Waukesha, Wis., Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Michels, a multimillionaire construction company owner who poured millions of his own money into his race, was endorsed by Trump in early June. Two weeks ago, Pence again broke with his former boss as he endorsed Kliefisch, the conservative former lieutenant governor who served eight years under then-Gov. Scott Walker.
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“There is no gubernatorial candidate in America who is more capable, more experienced or a more proven conservative than Rebecca Kleefisch,” Pence said as he met with the former lieutenant governor at a campaign stop in suburban Milwaukee last Wednesday.
And Kleefisch pointed out that she’s “tested and proven and ready to go” and that she’s “one who’s won four times across the country.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence and Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kliefisch participate in a roundtable discussion on Aug. 3, 2022, in Pewaukee, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File) (AP)
Two days later, while he was headlining a rally for Michels in Waukesha, Trump charged that “Rebecca Kleefisch doesn’t have what it takes to beat Tony Evers … He’s going to win if he goes up against Rebecca.”
Asked by reporters on the eve of the primaries for comment on Trump’s disparaging attacks, Kliefisch replied: “No thoughts that I can share.”
And she appeared to reject Trump’s endorsement of Michels, as she emphasized in an interview with Fox News on Monday that “the voters of Wisconsin will be the ones who determine the outcome of this race.”
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The Michels campaign tried to portray Kleefisch as a never-trumper, writing in an email to supporters on the eve of the election that “if we don’t get Trump supporters to vote for Tim Michels on Tuesday, the Never-Trumpers will win.” And Michel’s campaign claims that if Kleefisch wins, “the media will falsely report that Wisconsinites have rejected Trump.”
Michels also spent big money to run ads targeting Kleefisch, while the former lieutenant governor criticized Michels — who owns a home in Connecticut — as a part-time Wisconsinite.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers speaks during a joint session of the legislature in the Assembly Chambers at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)
The candidate endorsed by Trump in Arizona’s GOP gubernatorial primary last week, former TV news anchor Carrie Lake, the tight-lipped real estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents member Karyn Taylor Robeson, who was endorsed by Pence .
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But in May, conservative Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who was endorsed by Pence, defeated a Trump-backed challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary.
In addition to Pence, two other potential 2024 GOP White House candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and former South Carolina governor and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, endorsed Kleefish this summer. Haley campaigned with the former lieutenant governor and helped her raise approximately $100,000.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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