Steven Potter:
So the state parties are political organizations, but you're not campaigns. What is your role and purpose and specifically what will you do in the 2024 elections?

Brian Schimming:
So our role really is to go out and get Republicans and send the right voters across the state, ID them, persuade them and make sure they get out to vote. Interesting statistic, I think, in the last 24 years, 12 races in Wisconsin, statewide races, we're about 6 million people here, 12 races in Wisconsin were decided by less than 30,000 votes. So Wisconsin truly is a purple state, right? And so I always say with 2024 ahead, we're not one of 50 states, we're one of five. The truth is, the road to the White House goes through Wisconsin. So that puts a lot on our plate because we have to go out and ID our people and get them out to vote. And we're spending a lot of time right now in early vote, encouraging early vote, which, culturally, has not been something Republicans have done historically. So, but I have a massive commitment to it. We were the first state in the country to roll out an early vote campaign going into this year. So we have a lot of jobs, but those are certainly the bigger ones.

Steven Potter:
And what are your priorities within the next election cycle? What are you aiming to do?

Brian Schimming:
Well, Wisconsin's going to be interesting, not only 'cause of the presidential race, but you have a U.S. Senate race here. We'll have at least one targeted congressional race. We may have new maps. The state Supreme Court may order new maps in the Legislature and in Congress. So for us, it's telling the story about Republican leadership and both parties clearly understand that Wisconsin is a purple viable state. So I think you're gonna see plenty of activity here, but we're gonna do what it takes to win.

Steven Potter:
In July, there will be the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Brian Schimming:
Yeah.

Steven Potter:
What are your expectations going into that event?

Brian Schimming:
I'm a native of Wisconsin, so I'm very excited. I've had an office in Milwaukee on and off quite a bit the last 25, 30 years. So I'm so excited for Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin and Wisconsin because it's really an opportunity to highlight the state and the city and the region on the national and international stage. For us, it's an opportunity to highlight to Republicans and media from across the country what Republican leadership has looked like here in Wisconsin, the difference between having a Republican governor and a Democrat governor, but also Joe Biden has to keep coming back to Wisconsin constantly. He'll be here again soon because he's in trouble in this state. Almost every set of polling numbers that you see out there showed Joe Biden is in big trouble and upside down on any number of issues affecting the people of this state. And so neither party can take it for granted, but we're gonna go to the wall on everything.

Steven Potter:
Having the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee will help you mobilize and motivate voters in that section of the state. Will it also matter to the rest of Wisconsin that the convention is here?

Brian Schimming:
Yeah, I think so because there's gonna be so much attention to the convention. We're gonna have 50,000 people coming into Milwaukee. We'll be recruiting 8,000 volunteers here in the state to help run this convention. So I get questions about this wherever I go in the state, I travel the state quite a bit. Every single stop I make, I get questions about the convention. So there's high awareness amongst Republicans here. And so, for us, it's an opportunity, first time in history, to be able to highlight Wisconsin, but also what we're doing here to win. So I'm happy to be in a situation where Republicans get to highlight everything we do and be able to do it on a national stage. It helps us recruit volunteers, it helps us build county organizations. It'll help the national candidates, it'll help raise money. So there's a lot of upsides of having the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Steven Potter:
What are you hearing from voters about the most important issues for them in this election cycle?

Brian Schimming:
Largely what I hear as we go around the state, but also in the polling and the other survey work that you see, economy, number one, no doubt about it. You have folks in the 70th percentile who think the country's on the wrong track. You have a Republican advantage on economic issues, very, very dramatic number right now. So for all the tens of millions of dollars that the president's campaign and their allies have spent trying to make him look better, the truth is, it's not working. And you see it in every poll out there. So for whatever list of issues that, you know, Republicans would face going into an election year, the Democrats have very, very serious issues. And it's not just one poll, two polls, even five or six, it's dozens of polls and they've been consistent. So for us, it's an opportunity to contrast what we'll do versus what the Biden Administration has been doing because people have very clearly said that they're not happy.

Steven Potter:
Also, abortion has been a major issue here in the state. Is it also gonna be a major issue in the presidential election?

Brian Schimming:
I think we will see about that. That's an issue, obviously, a lot of folks talk about. You know, I kind of say to people, "Look, there are lots of ways to talk about abortion." "I'm not sure we did as good a job "as we could have two years ago." And that Republicans can talk about different options out there. But also the fact the Democratic Party really, right now, is a party for abortion up to the moment of being rolled into the delivery room, publicly financed. You know, there's essentially no effort at even thinking about how that issue affects people. So, you know, I'm not afraid of that issue. I'm really not, I'm not sure we handled it as well as we could have two years ago, but I think we will this time.

Steven Potter:
Younger voters are deciding elections.

Brian Schimming:
Yeah.

Steven Potter:
How will you address and engage and capture the Gen Z vote?

Brian Schimming:
It's interesting because Wisconsin has one of the largest higher educational infrastructures in the country. We have 13 four-year public schools, 13 two-year, 12 two-year schools, 20 private independent colleges and universities. You have the tech school system. So I've always thought, I suggested, 10 years ago, that we put a full-timer out and do that. Now, we're gonna be ramping up our effort very dramatically on the campuses in this state. I've run campus campaigns, I've been to every single four-year campus in this state over the years, having worked for three Republican governors. So I know the campuses in this state very, very well. I'm personally committed to getting, I've gotten to several of them already. So we're gonna have a presence and I suspect other efforts will be coming in the state too, to focus on those younger voters. So I welcome that opportunity.

Steven Potter:
Former President Donald Trump and front runner for the Republican nomination is, you know, has been charged in court. Is that a turnoff for voters?

Brian Schimming:
Well, it hasn't shown, you know, to be so far. I mean, here you've got Joe Biden, who's now going on to be a four-year incumbent, contrasted a fair bet against Donald Trump right now. And he's losing, I mean, a new poll that came out this week showed Biden behind President Trump in all seven swing states. So I think part of the problem of when you kind of put the stake in the ground and throw all your, you know, when you throw all your cards on the table behind kind of one issue, like they're trying to do with Donald Trump, boy, you better win that bet. And right now, they are not winning that bet. I think the difference in this presidential race is this, and it's not one we usually have. And that is, you have two incumbents, right? I mean, you have two people that people know, to your earlier point, you have two people that folks know. They were pretty happy at the end of Donald Trump's term with his record. He didn't lose 'cause of his record. There might've been some other issues, but not because of that. Well, now, you essentially have two incumbents facing each other, one with a record, which people in the polling show that overall they liked and one with a record, President Biden, where they are really unhappy on most of the top line issues. So I think that makes this race historically different and better. And so if the Democrats wanna spend all their time trashing Donald Trump, fine by us, because you know what? They've been doing it for six years and that's not working out very well for them right now.

Steven Potter:
Why should Wisconsin residents and voters feel confident in the electoral process here in the state?

Brian Schimming:
I think, well, you know, one of the emphasis we've had this year is recruiting poll workers across Wisconsin. Wisconsin has actually one of the earlier dates in the country where both parties have to hook up poll workers for the next year's election. So for all the elections next year, we have to have our poll workers signed up by November 30th, which we just passed on the calendar this year. We hook up well over 5,000 poll workers statewide. So my message to folks is let's recruit poll workers to help out local clerks and frankly have our eyes on the prize, make sure we're part of the process. But we'll do it with that. We'll do it with poll watchers, we'll do it with attorneys, we'll do it. We're gonna have a larger kind of election integrity operation out of here than we ever have. We've been improving the last couple of years. But I think poll workers is a very important part of that. But that will also be the case 'cause of the early vote, 'cause you're gonna have a lot of people early voting that might not have otherwise maybe. And so we're gonna make sure we have balance and make sure that we're watching all the operations locally, statewide, in all the races.