Posted on 04/03/2019 8:34:35 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Brian Hagedorn was a dead man walking. Michael Screnock’s 12-point drubbing a year ago seemed like a best-case scenario. His liberal opponent had an overwhelming fundraising advantage, hundreds of thousands of dollars more in support from Eric Holder’s PAC and Planned Parenthood, and the residual wave of Governor Evers’ stunning upset just five months earlier.
Yet Hagedorn punched anyway, and punched back so hard that it got Wisconsin’s vaunted conservative grassroots off the mat and in his corner.
Hagedorn couldn’t possibly win, not with the endless news reports about his old blog posts, Christian school policies, and Alliance Defending Freedom speeches. His campaign was less a victory march than it was a march to the electoral gallows.
Just as importantly, the institutional conservative movement behind him was in shambles.
Finger-pointing over Governor Walker’s loss led to an overhaul of the Wisconsin Republican Party in the middle of Hagedorn’s campaign, and the Wisconsin Realtors Association’s very public rebuke of him left him politically toxic.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce refused to spend on his behalf, thinking that his was a lost cause. One could hardly blame them, either. Nobody, it seemed, gave Hagedorn even a puncher’s chance.
Yet Hagedorn punched anyway, and punched back so hard that it got Wisconsin’s vaunted conservative grassroots off the mat and in his corner.
His campaign, to borrow Rocky’s tagline, was a million-to-one shot, but the grassroots were willing to take it with him even if no one else was.
New Republican Party leader Mark Jefferson returned power and autonomy to local party branches to coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts, Americans for Prosperity led the way in voter contacts, and even the voters themselves made phone calls, sent texts, and posted Facebook messages stressing to everyone they knew the importance of this race.
It is, of course, still too close to call and as of this writing well within the margin for a recount, but Hagedorn has also built enough of a lead that it will almost certainly hold. In the 27 statewide recounts over the past 20 years, the average swing was just 282 votes. The largest swing ever was 1,247 votes in the infamous Florida recount of 2000.
Once Hagedorn is sworn in, conservatives will take a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court and, more importantly, indemnify themselves against the possibility of losing control next year. Had Hagedorn lost, the resulting 4-3 conservative majority would have likely been turned into a 4-3 liberal majority in the Spring of 2020 when incumbent conservative justice Dan Kelly has to run on the same ballot as the Democratic presidential primary.
The inherent liberal advantage there would have meant a near-insurmountable hill to climb, but if Hagedorn’s win should remind Wisconsin of anything, it’s that grassroots conservative activism is capable of pulling off major upsets.
A significant reason is acute awareness of the significance of the stakes. Once it was understood that this year’s race was essentially for control of the Court, conservatives steeled their resolve. Once they recognized that Hagedorn was essentially being attacked for his Christian beliefs, their resolve turned titanium. Repeated attacks on mainstream Christian beliefs as being disqualifying for public office backfired spectacularly.
Repeated attacks on mainstream Christian beliefs as being disqualifying for public office backfired spectacularly, as untold thousands of Christian conservatives (and, anecdotally, even a handful of Christian liberals) viewed them as a personal affront.
That was the ultimate motivator, as it provided a flashpoint for the pervading sense that liberalism was encroaching on Wisconsin’s values. First it was Holder’s hundreds of thousands trying to buy the Court, and then it was his allied groups intimating that a hateful Christian like Hagedorn, like you, wasn’t morally fit to sit on it.
This led voters to personally identify with Hagedorn in a way that they never did with Screnock or even winning candidates like Rebecca Bradley, David Prosser, Michael Gableman, and Annette Ziegler. All of them won hard-fought races and were predictably demonized on their way to the Court, but none experienced the intensely personal persecution that Hagedorn did.
That bonded conservatives to him and turned casual participants in this race into active supporters willing to go the extra mile for him. It wasn’t just that liberals were going to take over the Court, they were going to make sure someone like Hagedorn, like you, could never possibly hope to sit on it ever again.
This, apparently, was all it took to re-engage conservatives and re-awaken Wisconsin’s sleeping giant. Looming large now is the recount, but what lingers from this race is the sense that conservatism in this state can never be counted out.
*PING*
I liked the job Scott Walker did.
Thank you for posting this. It is TRULY encouraging!!!
Its sad to see how Ryan’s inaction and attacks on Conservatives has damaged WI GOP.
Funny how the same thing happened in MN when the GOP captured the State House years ago.
The GOP in MN decided they needed to move to the left and the end result is they lost everything.
Awesome story. Must be replicated in other states.
PA Conservatives fell asleep during Supreme Court elections and it has been devastating. The PA SC has redrawn Congressional District Maps and it Republican lost a ton of seats.
It is the new SOROS strategy. DA races. State races.
If the Silent Majority stays too silent in 2020, they could well be permanently silenced!
And the only “resistance” they need to be involved in is “getting out the vote”!
The media tell us that in the unlikely event that the attempts to overthrow the Trump government prior to the 2020 election fail, his opponent will triumph and will bring along not only the House but the Senate. A similar tsunami will occur in many states, especially those who voted for Obama.
Unfortunately, the voters have a say in all of this. While this is only one data point, it points to some buyers remorse for what the voters did in 2018. The media will be the last to know this, but Trump supporters will probably have reason to cheer in the wake of the 2020 elections.
Pennsylvania my home state is unfortunately rolled by my hometown Philadelphia
“It is, of course, still too close to call and as of this writing well within the margin for a recount, but Hagedorn has also built enough of a lead that it will almost certainly hold.”
Really? The democrats have become quite brazen about their vote stealing. I think the odds are quite high, this election will be stolen by the democrats, just as they always do!
https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-Latest-Hagedorn-declares-victory-in-13737614.php
Brian Hagedorn held a news conference Wednesday morning in Pewaukee to talk. He talked about his nearly 6,000-vote lead over opponent Lisa Neubauer. Her campaign has already started fundraising for a possible recount.
Folks, the RINO crowd is alive and well in the "business" community. (see: Koch Brothers)
Thank you Diana for posting this article. I pray the re-count does not see the DEMON RATS stealing yet another election like they did in numerous California races in 2018.
Voter fraud is a big problem and we better get a grip on it.
sff
Congrats, Diana... I’m sure you were one of the forces responsible for this victory. We all need to keep the faith.
I sense a big disturbance in the force over my northern border today...liberals in despair (yet, again)...a good feeling.
Madistan must be in full fledged melt down. I hope we see stories of Profs. diving off buildings in protest.
His win is a good omen for Trump in Wisconsin as well.
Hagedorn sits on a 6000 vote lead with 100% counted according to the Wisconsin elections website. Looks good.
“Her campaign has already started fundraising for a possible recount.”
But of course!
Thanks for all of the positive responses, and of course, the few ‘Nattering Neighbobs of Negativity’ that just can’t help themselves, LOL!
Today? We CELEBRATE! 6,000 votes ahead with 100% counted is going to be tough for the ‘Rats to roll. I’m glad Hagedorn is out ahead of this, and I know his counterparts on the WI SC will welcome him with open arms.
Trust me - people outside of Madistan and Milwaukeestan are sick and TIRED of being called names and especially tired of the Left slandering our Christianity.
We ARE a Christian Nation, no matter WHAT the Left ‘wishes.’
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