Image: The Lincoln Project
Lincoln with cabinet painting
We should have known this was coming.
Despite longstanding promises to the contrary, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Oshkosh) revealed in a Jan. 9 Wall Street Journal editorial that, yes, he would indeed run for a third term rather than stopping at the two U.S. Senate stints he promised when first elected.
“Much as I would like to ease into a quiet retirement, I don’t feel I should,” Johnson wrote. “I believe America is in peril.”
Many don’t agree with Johnson’s seemingly false sense of selflessness, not the least of which is the Lincoln Project, the group of former Republican political activists created to combat former President Donald Trump’s selfish hold on the throat of the Republican Party. The organization and its principals are keeping an eye on many states, including Wisconsin, as the November 2022 mid-term elections loom and the 2024 presidential race gathers dark storm clouds on the horizon. According to project cofounder Reed Galen, Johnson and many of his fellow GOP operatives pose what may be an extraordinary threat to U.S. democracy.
“At the federal level, Ron Johnson is the archetype of someone I would describe as very conservative and maybe sort of an asshole—pardon my French—but he’s not flat-out insane,” says Galen, a high-level political strategist and former deputy campaign manager for Republican John McCain’s presidential bid who also served with the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. “However, he has drunk as much of the conspiracy Kool-Aid as he could find and shouldn’t be allowed within a country mile of any position of public trust.”
Image: The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project logo
Goals for Wisconsin
Johnson, along with Republican gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch, Scott Walker’s former lieutenant governor, are among the Lincoln Project’s top Wisconsin targets, Galen says. In both cases, the group’s goal is to draw the two candidates’ fire, allowing Gov. Tony Evers more space to regroup and make his own re-election bid successful. In Johnson’s case, at least, that shouldn’t be difficult given the Oshkosh candidate’s own misfires, specifically the August 2021 video in which he conceded that Trump lost the election in Wisconsin “because 51,000 people didn’t vote for him.”
|
|
“If Johnson isn’t pure enough for the MAGA supporters, they won’t vote for him and maybe just stay home on election day,” Galen says.
The Lincoln Project, which operates as a virtual organization and does not have offices in Wisconsin or any other state, hopes to build greater influence and attract more participation from Wisconsin legislators and voters. The group also hopes to broaden its base from former Republicans and Democrats to include a wider constituency of groups and individuals less interested in partisan efforts and more concerned about preserving democracy, currently imperiled by the Trump-led right, according to Galen.
“I hope there’s a future because the crazies are now the mainstream and the right-wing media attracts far more listeners and readers with their authoritarian messaging,” says Galen. “There’s a dangerous political force in the country right now and it doesn’t take too many goons walking around your neighborhood with AR-15s to convince you to stay inside and not vote.”
Trump’s reemergence as a political candidate will only fan the flame of divisiveness among voters and political parties, Galen says. But that reemergence is not yet a foregone conclusion and may be impacted by outcomes of the 2022 midterm elections.
“My gut says that if Democrats hold the House [of Representatives] Trump may not run again,” Galen says. “He didn’t want to be the president impeached the first or second times and I don’t think he will want to be impeached a third time.”
Trump’s absence from politics will help reduce the authoritarian shadow creeping over the U.S. from the right, but it’s not likely to eliminate those overtones outright, meaning greater vigilance in future elections will be critical.
“There’s a saying in politics that Democrats play chess while Republicans try and eat the pieces,” Galen says. ‘I wonder if the Democrats really know what they are up against.”
