Pence visits to boost Vukmir
Vice president giving U.S. Senate candidate a big fundraising lift
Vice President Mike Pence gave Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir a big fundraising boost and a strong endorsement during a visit to Milwaukee Thursday.
It was the first high-profile event of Vukmir’s general election campaign after she won the GOP primary against Kevin Nicholson.
Vukmir is now battling Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in a closely watched race that could help determine party control in the Senate.
“Wisconsin and America need Leah Vukmir in the United States Senate,” Pence said on the tarmac, shortly after landing at Mitchell International Airport.
Pence said Vukmir, a state senator from Brookfield, “has served this state with great distinction” and added she has been part of the “Wisconsin economic miracle” while working closely with Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“President Trump and I couldn’t be more excited to have a principled leader like Leah Vukmir stepping up to make this race in the United States Senate.”
He said Vukmir would be “different from Tammy Baldwin” and support
Trump’s nominees to the federal courts.
Donald Trump and Pence won in Wisconsin in 2016 and Republicans are eager to cement another victory this year in the races for U.S. Senate and governor.
Pence said he and the president will be campaigning in the state for Vukmir and Walker. On this visit, he attended a private fundraiser with Vukmir at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.
Pence acknowledged that the first midterm election for a president is “always a challenge.”
But he declared: “We’re going to see a red wave.”
Standing alongside Pence, Vukmir said she was “thrilled to have the vice president here.”
The governor was supposed to also be on hand to greet Pence, but he was in Marquette County viewing damage from storms that have racked parts of the state in recent days.
Pence said he spoke by phone with Walker.
“Our hearts go out to all of the families across Wisconsin that have been affected by the heavy rains and flooding,” Pence said.
He added Walker will “soon be submitting an emergency declaration to our nation’s capital and I told him we would be processing that very quickly. I pledged to him all of the relevant support that is available.”
With tens of thousands of HarleyDavidson motorcycle riders in the city this weekend to celebrate the firm’s 115th anniversary, Pence was asked about Trump’s feud with the company over tariffs and plans to relocate a plant outside the United States.
Pence said, “My first message to Harley-Davidson riders is that I’m one of them. I ride a Harley-Davidson and love it. It’s a great, great company.”
Pence said the president has been cutting taxes for businesses like HarleyDavidson, rolling back regulations and growing the economy.
“Our objective is to see Harley-Davidson and every American company grow jobs, right here in America,” he said, adding the president’s message is “let’s grow here and let’s grow together.”
Baldwin campaign spokesman Bill Neidhardt sought to tie Vukmir to Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
“Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Wisconsin to help boost Leah Vukmir because she’d be the deciding vote in the U.S. Senate to allow insurance companies to deny Wisconsinites coverage for pre-existing conditions and charge older people more,” he said in a statement. “Meanwhile, Tammy Baldwin is leading the fight to protect Wisconsinites’ health care.”
Baldwin is pushing an effort in the U.S. Senate to overturn a Trump administration rule on short-term health plans, calling them “junk insurance.”
Pence said the administration was “committed to bringing innovation and reform to American health care that lowers the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.”
Pence said Republicans made an effort to “fully repeal and replace Obamacare and we’ll continue with Leah Vukmir in the Senate, we’ll continue to go back to that.”
Touting manufacturing
Earlier Thursday, Vukmir toured West Allis’ Price Erecting Co., which moves and installs heavy machinery. She was joined by Bryan Steil, a Republican running for the seat held by House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville.
The visit was designed to show off a Wisconsin manufacturer that has done well in the past few years behind a growing economy.
“I’ve always believed that government doesn’t create jobs, but we create the environment for the job creators,” Vukmir said. “To think that a year and a half ago you had 22 employees and now you have 60, that says everything that you want to say about what we have done here in Wisconsin.”
Vukmir said the economy has been boosted by policies from Walker and Trump.
She said Republicans in Wisconsin have gotten “rid of onerous regulations and created the tax incentives” to help firms flourish.
“We have created a situation where people actually want to live here and raise their families here,” she said.