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Johnson, Walker Say They Could Support Trump

Neither Wisconsin Reppublican Has Endorsed A Nominee

By
Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Two of the state’s top Republicans say they’ll support Donald Trump if he secures the GOP nomination for President.

Speaking to reporters at a Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce event in Madison, Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson were both asked about the prospect of Trump winning the Republican nomination.

“I will certainly support the Republican nominee,” Johnson said. “Because every election is a comparison, a contrast between one candidate and another. And on the Democrat side, there’s no way I could support Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.”

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Walker said that when he was running for President in August, he agreed to support whomever emerged as the GOP nominee.

“I don’t know who the nominee is going to be yet, so it’s premature for me to say by name,” Walker said. “But I don’t know that my position’s changed any way from then.”

Walker called Trump’s rise “one of the most remarkable things I think we’ve seen in modern political campaign history,” but he said he wasn’t sure where it would end up.

“Conventional wisdom is that someone who’s won that many states is well on their way towards the nomination,” Walker said. “But as we’ve seen this year, conventional wisdom has proven to be wrong on just about every issue.”

Already this year, Trump won the New Hampshire and South Carolina GOP primaries, and he won the Nevada caucuses this week. The next big test will be so-called Super Tuesday on March 1, when a dozen states will cast their votes.

Still in the race for Republicans are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Many Wisconsin Republicans, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, have endorsed Rubio, while a handful have endorsed Cruz. Walker and Johnson have not endorsed any candidates.

When Walker bowed out of the presidential race in September, he urged other Republicans to do the same so that the party could coalesce around an alternative to Trump.

“I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current frontrunner,” he said at the time.