KENOSHA, Wis. — “I have tattoos,” says Paul Nehlen, the political novice who has created a headache for House Speaker Paul Ryan. “I don’t live my life like I’m going to run for Congress,” he tells audiences, suggesting that the 46-year-old Ryan began plotting his political career basically in grade school.
“Paul Ryan is the head of the snake,” Nehlen said at rally headlined by conservative pundit Ann Coulter here on Saturday — one of two such events she did for Nehlen over the weekend. “Paul Ryan is the party of Paul Ryan,” he said to lots of head nods from the crowd of about 100 hundred people. “Lying Ryan rests easy in his mansion” as illegals enter the United States with his tacit approval. He’s a “lawbreaker” who wants to resettle mass numbers of dangerous Syrian refugees in the U.S.
He would “ram through” the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the expense of American workers, Nehlen frequently alleges. “Where can displaced workers go to get refugee status?” he asks.
The 47-year-old businessman who moved to Wisconsin in 2014 says he decided in late March to run for Congress because of “Paul Ryan’s mercenary championing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I’ll be damned if I watch Paul Ryan burn it down,” he said of the companies he has owned and managed over the years.
Nehlen uses the same kind of vitriolic rhetoric as the man he says America needs to save itself from the “corrupt, crony” business and political classes — GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Nehlen’s long-shot bid rocketed to prominence when Trump posted a supportive tweet Aug. 1. That turned the national media’s attention to Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, where Ryan on Tuesday is still expected to cruise to the GOP nomination on course to notch a 10th term in November.
Trump’s hemming and hawing about endorsing Ryan — using Ryan’s own words about why he hadn’t immediately backed the real estate mogul almost verbatim — further put Nehlen’s quest on the map.
So has the support of prominent conservatives like Coulter. In addition to her, Nehlen has won plaudits and endorsements from Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin and Phyllis Schlafly.
In speaking with Nehlen supporters two things become very clear: a small but committed group of Trump backers had already taken notice of Nehlen and are spreading the word to friends and, using social media, to like-minded strangers. However, the majority are disaffected Republicans who don’t think highly of the GOP establishment and live outside Ryan’s district, and, in many cases, outside of the Badger State.
There is a group of Virginians who call themselves the “Brat Pack” helping Nehlen, who has never sought any elected position before, organize his campaign. And many of his staffers are from out of state.
The “Brat Pack” group worked on the campaign of now-Rep. Dave Brat when he ousted then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia’s 7th District last cycle. They are volunteers who do not, however, work in Brat’s congressional office.
“I like that he is God-centered … focusing on border control and against these asinine trade agreements,” said Mike Krsiean.
Krsiean, who lives near the Minnesota border, unsuccessfully tried upsetting Rep. Sean Duffy in 2014’s Republican primary for Wisconsin’s 7th District.
“He’s totally sold out to the establishment and to the corporations,” chimes in wife Annie Krisean about Ryan. “I detest that. I absolutely detest the establishment and he is right up there with the establishment.”
The Krsieans donated to Nehlen’s campaign to do the “best we can from afar” to express their dissatisfaction with Congress’ Republican leadership.
Despite “outside” money such as the Krsieans’ contribution, Ryan’s campaign war chest dwarfs Nehlen’s: Ryan had raised nearly $15 million to Nehlen’s less than $900,000 as of July 20, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission reports.
Ginny Procuniar from Chicago said she backed Ryan when he ran on the presidential ticket with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012. Now she is knocking on doors throughout Southeastern Wisconsin for Nehlen in his quest to unseat “traitor Romney’s” one-time running mate.
Maria Espinoza from Houston said she traveled up north, on her own dime, to draw attention to crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
“I’m concerned about our country,” she explained about why she attended the Coulter/Nehlen event in Janesville on Saturday. “The current laws are not being upheld and Americans are dying.”
Some Republicans who are eligible to vote in Tuesday’s primary also came to the parking lot in downtown Kenosha to hear what Nehlen had to say.
Janet Kott saw one of Nehlen’s anti-Ryan videos on his Facebook page and shared it with her husband, Dave Kott.
“I was a Ryan supporter and Ryan voter before,” Dave Kott said. Then he took Nehlen’s advice and dug into Ryan’s record. “I started seeing the stark differences that they have and I align with what Mr. Nehlen” is proposing more.
Kott said that he was set to vote for Ryan again until three months ago. But now with “what he’s been doing with the current administration — he is not for the sovereignty of this country — the globalization” Ryan and President Obama seek through trade deals has swayed Kott to Nehlen.
Janet laughed at predictions that Ryan will win handily on Tuesday.
“For every one Ryan sign, there are like 10 Nehlen signs” across the district, she claimed.
“I’m no too happy with Paul Ryan,” said Frank, who would not give his last name. “I’m a big Trump fan and I know Paul Ryan is pretty much not for Trump — seems like that,” the Kenosha resident said.
“I just don’t like the way he seems to be veering away form his party’s candidate,” Frank added. “The people voted for Trump. People want Trump and he seems like he’s swaying away” from the Republican Party standard bearer.
“Establishment” Republicans in the district are baffled at the reaction Nehlen elicits from some voters.
Nehlen is “very vitriolic and confrontational,” says state Rep. Samantha Kerkman a Republican lawmaker whose district is within the 1st Congressional District. She attended the Kenosha rally and was taken aback at the repeated shouts of “traitor” and “criminal” she heard from the crowd, at least half of whom were wearing Trump t-shirts or holding pro-Trump signs.
However, she said she spied lots of vehicles with out of state plates and only identified fewer than 10 people that she for sure knows live in Ryan’s district.
Tom Case, a roofer from Destin, Fla., took umbrage at the notion that he and his fellow volunteers are “interlopers” of some kind.
“That’s not the case,” said Case, who is spending eight days in the area talking up Nehlen. “There’s no outside money; but there are people who care about this,” he said. “They are the head of the snake,” he said about national GOP leaders.
“I don’t think [Nehlen’s message] is getting traction,” said John Schulze, lobbyist for the state’s Associated Builders and Contractors chapter.
Schulze, who has not attended a Nehlen event but does live in the district, chalked up Nehlen’s momentum to a small group of malcontents.
“There’s a group that’s generally ornery and won’t vote for Paul Ryan” because he represents the “establishment” Schulze said. “But I don’t think people are buying” that Ryan wants to throw open the borders, ship jobs overseas and take in dangerous refugees.
Nehlen does not seem to be making inroads with residents who are not particularly unhappy with national GOP leaders or curious enough to attend his functions.
“I’ve heard of him; I don’t know him well,” Matt Frost of Kenosha said. “I think he is probably well-intentioned, but I don’t think he’s made a strong case” for why anyone should vote for him, Frost said.
Frost is the purchasing manager of Pleasant Prairie-based manufacturer Ocenco Inc., which Ryan visited on Monday.
