Wisconsin, on paper, should be a state where Republicans have a fighting chance to pick up a Senate seat in 2024, an election where experts give the GOP great odds to retake the Senate because the map skews heavily in their favor.
However, according to The Daily Beast, Wisconsin Republicans are facing a recruitment crisis as all of their top picks for Senate have declined to run against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, and the few who are considering a run are less than credible.
The two names most heavily floated for the race are Reps. Brian Gallagher and Tom Tiffany, the Beast reported. However, both have declined to run. In fact, every House Republican in Wisconsin has declined.
The only current candidates are a pair of millionaire businessmen — real estate developer Eric Hovde and former racecar driver Scott Mayer — whose main involvement in politics up to this point has been donating to the GOP.
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Also considering a run is disgraced Trump-loving former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a once-frequent Fox News guest who compared January 6 to a "frat party," is involved in the QAnon movement, and who was once sued for allegedly cutting off water to people as punishment in his jails, leading to at least one inmate death.
“There is a lot to go over, and I won’t be rushed or held to some consultant’s timeline about a decision. I am not your typical politician,” Clarke told The Daily Beast when asked whether he was close to a decision about running.
Baldwin was first elected in 2012, defeating former Gov. Tommy Thompson for the open seat.
This comes as the GOP faces a number of other recruitment woes in its Senate recruitment, including the risk of far-right candidates hijacking the process around the country. Even in states where they appear to have more mainstream candidates lined up, they are already facing problems; in Pennsylvania, former hedge fund manager David McCormick — the top candidate for the GOP Senate nomination there — is facing allegations he really lives in Connecticut, a throwback to the previous race in the commonwealth where Dr. Mehmet Oz was charged with really living in New Jersey.
