Leah Vukmir Defeats Kevin Nicholson In Republican US Senate Primary

State Sen. Leah Vukmir has defeated Delafield businessman Kevin Nicholson to become the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.

Vukmir now moves on in the push to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the November general election.

At 9:41 p.m., the Associated Press called the race. With 56 percent of precincts reporting at that time, Vukmir, a state senator from Brookfield, won the Republican nomination with 53 percent of the vote, outpacing Nicholson, a former U.S. Marine, who had 39 percent of the vote.

Vukmir was first elected to the state Assembly in 2002 and to the state Senate in 2010. Her campaign has focused on her credentials as a proven conservative and her ties to Gov. Scott Walker. She has backed Walker’s Act 10 collective bargaining law and the state’s voter ID law.

In her acceptance speech Tuesday night, Vukmir continued to tout the strength of Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

“We spread a message of the Wisconsin way, our economic miracle that we did together, our strong conservative victories,” Vukmir said. “And we’re going to take that to Washington where they are in need of a strong conservative.”

Vukmir wasted no time in attacking Baldwin, saying the Democrat’s support for single-payer health care, her vote against last year’s tax cuts and her refusal to support President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees were out of step with Wisconsin values.

Vukmir also thanked her supporters in her speech and on Twitter.

During the primary, Walker didn’t endorse either Republican candidate, but Vukmir is a personal friend of Walker. The governor’s wife, Tonette Walker, has endorsed Vukmir.

The state Republican Party and numerous Wisconsin Republicans — including U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner — have endorsed her.

Vukmir recently told WPR that she has a history of pushing the limits in Wisconsin and wants to do the same in Washington.

“People know me as a proven, consistent conservative,” she said. “I’m feisty.”

Nicholson was once the president of College Democrats of America. Nicholson touted himself as a political outsider and credited his military experience with beginning his political transformation.

In a short concession speech Tuesday night, Nicholson voiced his support for Vukmir.

“We’re facing the same challenges we were just a couple of hours ago,” he said. “Our nation needs strong leaders, we need people who are going to go to Washington and frankly, we need to very quickly remove Tammy Baldwin from the United States Senate because she’s done nothing to make our state more prosperous and more secure.”

Nicholson thanked his family, campaign staff, volunteers and voters. This was his first run for office.

The support of Republican leadership for Vukmir hadn’t translated into an edge with voters for Vukmir in the latest Marquette University Law School poll. The July poll found 34 percent of registered voters supporting Vukmir and 32 percent supporting Nicholson, with a 7 percent margin of error.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin was quick to congratulate Vukmir on her victory, saying it’s time to “retire” Baldwin.

Both candidates portrayed themselves as loyal supporters of Trump who would champion his policies in Washington, and agreed that their policy stances are similar.

Both support Trump’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and tariffs his administration has imposed on steel, aluminum and other goods.

As WPR previously reported, millions of outside campaign spending has poured into Wisconsin in the race to defeat Baldwin, who was uncontested in the primary. Out of all the races on the ballot this year, no U.S. Senate seat has seen more outside spending than Wisconsin’s. As of early August, Baldwin, who won her first race for Senate in 2012, raised more than $21 million this election cycle, out-raising Nicholson and Vukmir.

During the race, Vukmir and Nicholson claimed Baldwin is a far-left wing liberal who believes in unrealistic and irresponsible policies.

Editor’s note: Andrea Anderson, Bridgit Bowden, Kyla Calvert Mason contributed to this report.