“GOP Needs Urgent Reset” is the title that Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, put on his “Backtalk” column in the January 2023 edition of Newsmax Magazine. The column was well written with a lot of “food for thought” and highlighted “The old game plan of playing to a dwindling base of older white voters is a train wreck in progress.” Other than that, I won’t say much about Christopher Ruddy’s column except to say the title caught my eye and seems to say what I have been thinking.

To initiate the needed urgent Republican reset, we first need to review some highlights (or lowlights) from the 2022 election cycle. First, the Republican Party of Wisconsin needs to be a source of contact information for all Republican candidates for Congressional and state-wide elections. Communicating on the websites of many candidates only puts you on the mailing list for donations and fails to get a contact to organize grass roots election efforts such as meet-&-greets, parades, or other opportunities to meet the voters. This great lack of available information is a serious problem for introducing candidates to the voters at the local level.

A second concern is “Reagan’s 11th Commandment” which basically says “thou shall not speak evil against a fellow Republican”. I want to know why a particular candidate is the best choice, or why a conservative is better than the liberal, and not personal negative opinion about a primary opponent. This was particularly noteworthy with one candidate for Attorney General and another for Secretary of State; both of whom had previous campaign experience, spewed verbal garbage about their primary opponent, and both lost in the primary election. One of these candidates even “yelled” at me for endorsing his opponent without asking him first!

A third concern is the more than a dozen and maybe closer to two dozen Republican candidates that went “missing in action” as soon as Primary Election Day was in the books. If their political goal was to elect a conservative Republican rather than a liberal Democrat, what happened? In this part of Wisconsin I saw no evidence of any primary loser rallying around the victor and encouraging a vote for the conservative in November. There may have been some “team effort” in other parts of the state, but nothing evident in the Coulee Region.

A final concern involves the college students. A few short years ago the Republican Party of the 3rd District was going to make a big effort to energize College Republicans but this effort apparently met an apathetic demise. There are six UW-campuses in the 3rd District, and maybe the county parties closely connected made efforts, but not enough effort was made across the 3rd District. Now, since last November’s election, there is state-wide discussion about the impact of college students on election results – too late for 2022 but maybe time to reset before 2024!

In 2022 the Republican Party of Wisconsin made a much-needed significant effort for “local elections” which occur in April of very year and claim great success. While congratulations for these efforts appear justified, one should also encourage even more efforts! For example, in the upcoming election for Wisconsin Court of Appeals District IV, which includes the Coulee Region, the lone candidate is a Dane County District Court Judge who happens to be a Governor Ever’s liberal appointee. Are there no conservative judges, or other lawyers, in the entire southwest Wisconsin region that might want to serve their state on the Appeals Court?

Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District now has a newly elected Republican Congressman so obviously some things went right! Congratulations and thanks to all involved to make this happen. But, have you noticed, talk of the 2024 election cycle has already begun and we need to work twice as hard to keep our Republican congressman in Congress. I believe the 3rd District was instrumental in reelecting Senator Johnson as well.

A Republican “reset” begins with organizational leadership at many levels. Third District Republican Chairman Bill Feehan is a candidate for reelection and has been endorsed by Congressman Derrick Van Orden. He has stepped away from Chairmanship of the Republican Party of La Crosse County after trying to handle both chairmanships for the past few years. The Republican Party of Wisconsin recently elected Brian Schimming as Chairman; an excellent choice that brings experience and energy to the position. The National Republican Party recently reelected Chairman Ronna McDaniel with more votes than her two challengers combined!

A Republican “reset” was evident in the lengthy voting process for Speaker of the House of Representatives with the many changes to put the “reign of Pelosi” in the history books and a return of the national legislative process “to the people”.

The foundation for the urgent reset needed by the Republican Party at the local, state, and national levels is in place. Chairmen Feehan, Schimming, & McDaniel all realize there is work to be done and I believe they will listen and will make the necessary changes within their respective Republican organizations so sometime in the future we can collectively look back at the “Republican reset of 2024”! But, these three individuals cannot do it alone, they need the energetic and effective help of all good conservatives; both those that are card carrying members of local Republican parties and those that are not. Together, we can get involved, initiate, and impact the needed urgent Republican reset leading into the 2024 campaign season.

As Mr. Ruddy wrote in his Newsmax Magazine column “The old game plan of playing to a dwindling base of older white voters is a train wreck in progress.” I guess Mr. Ruddy forgot all the minority gains the Republican Party made that President Trump repeatedly reported. Maybe the Republican reset is already in progress?