Regarded as one of the two most vulnerable Republican senators in the country, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, should have stumped with Donald Trump.
In an interview on March 27, when asked about campaigning with Trump, Johnson said, “Stump with Trump? Just because it rhymes: It’d be the Ronald (and) the Donald.”
Au contraire, Johnson, you are much more similar to Trump than just a rhyming name.
Trump and Johnson are fringe candidates. Riding the 2010 Tea Party wave, Johnson overtook former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s, D-Wisconsin, Senate seat. In 2016, Johnson’s Tea Party views are rather mainstream, seeing as the top two national Republican presidential candidates utilize the fiery Tea Party rhetoric. But, Johnson is still on the margins of the Republican Party, criticized by Republicans and Democrats at the state and national level. Trump, too, is criticized by everyone.
Trump and Johnson are businessmen and Washington outsiders. Both Republicans run successful businesses. Both have spent a lot of their own money on their respective campaigns — Johnson heavily self-financed his 2010 Senate bid and Trump is doing the same in his 2016 presidential run. As a consequence of self-financing, both represent their own ideals.
But, Trump and Johnson are also not good at thinking on their feet. When asked if Trump could help his reelection campaign on “Meet the Press,” Johnson said, “What I’ve been talking about is, from my standpoint. I’m a businessperson. I’m a completele outsider. And that certainly is what has resonated about his campaign in many respects. But from my standpoint, I think what this campaign ought to be about is growth. How do you grow our economy?”
Yes, this is nonsense, especially when dragging in the part about the economy. Trump, too, has proven to not be able to answer random questions skillfully. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Trump said there should be some form of punishment for a woman seeking an abortion, a stance his campaign reversed about two hours later.
Trump and Johnson would have fit hand in hand in a campaign. Trump is divisive enough to draw a big crowd and Johnson knows Wisconsin well enough that Trump wouldn’t be making such ridiculous comments. The Ronald and the Donald is more than just a rhyme — it’s a mutually beneficial campaign strategy, which both Johnson and Trump overlooked.
Aaron Reilly ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in comparative literature and Russian.
