House Speaker Paul Ryan gets big primary victory over Trump follower

The Associated Press called the race after polls closed. 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and conservative columnist Michelle Malkin supported Nehlen, but it wasn’t enough to unseat Ryan, who has an astounding 80 percent approval rating in his district.

Speaker Paul Ryan of the U.S. House of Representatives speaks during his weekly briefing for reporters on Capitol Hill in photo taken February 11.

An executive at a water-filtration plant who moved to Wisconsin two years ago, Nehlen launched his campaign in April and opened an office in Kenosha, a town on the lip of Lake Michigan that sits on the district’s eastern border.

“There is a lot of anger that Washington just isn’t working”, he said. That stuff sells, but it doesn’t stick.

“It’s been one of the best experiences of my lifetime and I’m humbled that so many want to see my continue to work on their behalf”.

Tuesday brought Ryan’s first public remarks since Trump ignited his latest public firestorm earlier in the day while speaking in North Carolina. “And let it be very, very clear, that is exactly what Hillary Clinton and her party are offering”. Libertarian Jason Lebeck also will be on the ballot. And Ryan’s task is complicated by his profile, which has at times has made him seem like a relic caught in a populist storm.

The movement against the 46-year-old Ryan took on the appearance of a revolt of sorts, in the midst of an anti-establishment wave that helped make Mr Trump the party’s presidential nominee.

He went into the primary with massive advantages in name recognition and money.

Nehlen tried to link himself to Trump’s outsider status.. Nehlen had been courting Trump supporters and won praise from the Republican presidential nominee last week. Ryan spent significantly on TV ads and enjoyed the support of party leaders, GOP elected officials and talk radio hosts, a major force in Republican politics in southeastern Wisconsin.

Trump spoke highly of Nehlen last week before endorsing Ryan days later. Nehlen drew condemnation from many in both parties for calling for “a discussion” about deporting all U.S. Muslims – a statement he later walked back. Ryan, however, has never been anything like Cantor.

Ryan also showed no sign of being caught off guard by this primary challenge. Drawing on his almost $10 million in campaign funds, he ran a series of television ads, and he spent last weekend appearing at events like Corn and Brat Days in Elkhorn and the Armenian Fest in Racine.