MADISON, Wis. (AP) – House Speaker Paul Ryan had nearly $10 million in the bank and a primary opponent no one had heard of. Then Donald Trump got involved.
An expected walkover for the country’s highest-ranking Republican officeholder became one to watch on Tuesday, with Ryan seeking to avoid the most shocking of upsets against a political unknown hoping for a Trump bump.
Paul Nehlen’s star rose after Trump praised him last week on Twitter, then later pointedly withheld his endorsement of Ryan. Trump relented just three days later after coming under criticism from GOP leaders, but the burst of publicity was priceless for Nehlen.
No House speaker in modern political history has lost a primary, and Ryan is hugely popular in the southeastern Wisconsin district he has represented for nearly two decades. He crushed a protest candidate in the GOP primary two years ago, winning 94 percent of the vote. The only other time he had a primary challenger was in his first race, in 1998, when he won with 81 percent of the vote.
But Ryan responded quickly to Trump’s dabbling in his race, determined to avoid the fate that befell House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his surprise primary loss in 2014. Ryan’s huge financial advantage has allowed him to blanket the airwaves with ads, and he made the rounds on influential conservative talk radio stations as Trump threatened to steal the spotlight.