Wisconsin GOP leader says Republicans 'jazzed' about re-electing President Trump
MADISON — Wisconsin Republicans are "jazzed" and "fired up" about re-electing President Donald Trump, the GOP leader of the state Senate said Thursday, Oct. 24, predicting that the Democratic-led impeachment investigation will only help President Trump's chances in the battleground state.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he believes Democrats are pursuing impeachment because it is the only way they can deny President Trump a second term and that they are trying to convince voters to go against President Trump to end the "chaos."
"Wisconsin Trump voters are jazzed up," Fitzgerald said at the WisPolitics.com event to an audience of Capitol insiders, lobbyists, staffers, and others. "I don't think there's any two ways of looking at it. They are fired up and they are upset with what's going on."
Fitzgerald, who is running for Congress next year in the 5th Congressional District, which includes conservative suburban Milwaukee counties that are vital to President Trump's chances, said Democrats risk "overplaying their hand" by pursuing impeachment and predicted there would be a backlash.
President Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes. It, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, is considered one of the key states in President Trump's re-election bid because of its narrow margin. Three of the past five presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than one percentage point, and President Trump was the first Republican to win since 1984.
A Marquette University Law School poll released on Wednesday showed increasing support for an impeachment inquiry, but no clear majority. The poll showed support for holding impeachment hearings at 46%, with 49% against. Meanwhile, 44% supported impeaching and removing President Trump from office, while 51% opposed doing so.
Fitzgerald was an early and vocal supporter of President Trump in 2016. He is running as a strong ally of President Trump to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner. Democrat Tom Palzewicz is the only other candidate who has announced they are seeking the seat.
Fitzgerald predicted that President Trump will perform better in the conservative Milwaukee counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington than he did in 2016, when President Trump didn't fare as well there as Republican Mitt Romney did in 2012. Those counties were the center of the anti-President Trump conservative movement then, but Fitzgerald said he believes President Trump's standing had improved with suburban voters there.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler discounted Fitzgerald's assessment, saying Republicans edged away from President Trump in Wisconsin in 2016 and that because of his record since then, they are now "running away from Trump at a full sprint."