Though Steve Bannon has been booted from Breitbart, Leah Vukmir will do her best to make certain the fiery populist is not forgotten in Wisconsin during the Republican Senate primary.
When news broke that Bannon was done, Vukmir was still chatting with the Washington Examiner about her hopes to join the Senate. “So? I still think he should disavow that endorsement,” Vukmir said Tuesday afternoon, taking the opportunity to ding her primary opponent Kevin Nicholson, a Bannon-backed candidate in her race.
Within a week, Bannon has lost the confidence of the president, the money of his donors, and the trust of the populist base after he accused Donald Trump Jr. of committing treason during the campaign. Bannon has not, however, lost the allegiance of Nicholson. Once influential, it could quickly become toxic.
“Other candidates are leaving Bannon,” Vukmir said over the phone. “What’s surprising to me is that Nicholson has not.”
But there could be two problems with that attack. First, no one knows if Bannon will be an enduring terror or a harmless memory by the August primary. And second, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported, Vukmir wanted the Bannon endorsement up until the moment she didn’t get it.
That didn’t stop her campaign from hitting Nicholson as soon as Bannon and Trump went sideways. The very same day that the president turned on the populist, Vukmir’s campaign manager told Politico that “any self-respecting Republican should question whether Steve Bannon has any role in building our party.”
Six days later, Vukmir still doesn’t see any contradiction. She admits that she met with Bannon in D.C., and she seems relieved that she didn’t win him over.
“If I would’ve know the things that were written in this book, I wouldn’t have gone to him,” Vukmir said referencing Fire and Fury, the tabloid tell-all which started the split. And what if that meeting had gone differently, if she had managed to get Bannon onboard? “You better believe I would’ve still disavowed him right away.”
Whether or not Wisconsin accepts that answer, or whether it even matters anymore, is a question that won’t be answered for another seven months. Until then, Vukmir seems dead-set on making certain the ghost of Bannon keeps haunting her opponent.
