Outside money is piling up behind Kevin Nicholson in the Wisconsin Republican primary. Already nearly $10 million has been spent on the contest and another super PAC just announced a new $1 million ad buy in support of the candidate.
The six-figure spending comes from the Restoration PAC, a group backed almost exclusively by Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein and involved in competitive races across the country. As the Washington Examiner first learned, the 30-spot in support of Nicholson airs Friday on television and compares the candidate to former President Ronald Reagan.
“Just like with Ronald Reagan, reality turned Kevin Nicholson into a conservative,” the narrator says as photos of the candidate with his family and with his fellow Marines flash on screen. “More than 100 combat missions in Iraq. The birth of his children. It all shaped his conversion.”
The ad continues with some boilerplate about Nicholson supporting the Second Amendment, the right to life, and President Trump’s proposed border wall, before concluding that “Kevin Nicholson is the right choice for U.S. Senate.”
It comes as pro-Nicholson forces go for the kill ahead of that state’s August primary. For the last month, the Nicholson campaign has been touting an internal poll showing an 18-point lead over primary opponent state Sen. Leah Vukmir. Victory, one would think, should be eminent.
But Nicholson has some baggage. Hence the Reagan reference. Before running as a Republican, Nicholson was a Democrat. More specifically, he was president of the College Democrats and even earned a spot on stage to speak at the Democrat National Convention in 2000.
Since then, as the ad details and my colleague Emily Jashinsky reports, Nicholson got a family and became pro-life, went to war and became pro-Second Amendment, grew up and became a Republican. It’s a compelling story and one that Nicholson and his backers are confidant will carry him to the Senate. The help from Restoration PAC certainly can’t hurt.
