Wisconsin Examiner: Nicholson drops out of GOP governor’s race

Editor’s note: This story has been reproduced in Fort Atkinson Online with permission from the Wisconsin Examiner. The full publication can be found here: https://wisconsinexaminer.com. 

By Ruth Conniff

On Tuesday, Republican candidate Kevin Nicholson announced he is dropping out of the primary race for governor.

Nicholson, a Marine Corps veteran and self-described “political outsider,” was the choice of 10% of Republican voters polled by the Marquette University Law School Poll last month, compared with 27% for construction company executive Tim Michels and 26% for former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. 

Nicholson released a statement saying that when he entered the race he “knew it would be an uphill battle.”

“I am not part of the insider political class and am a threat to all they hold dear,” Nicholson said.

“Over the past week I have assessed the state of the primary race and it has become clear to me and my team the only path forward for our campaign is attacking the other candidates in the race on the airwaves and running a very negative campaign,” Nicholson said in his statement. “While our team has the capability to do that, that is not something I want to do — nor do I believe it would be good for the party to do so. This election is too important for our state and our movement.” 

Nicholson added that he would not endorse any of the other candidates before the primary. 

Both the Republican and Democratic primaries will be held Aug. 9.

Ruth Conniff is editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She formerly served as editor-in-chief of The Progressive Magazine where she worked for many years from both Madison and Washington, DC. Conniff is a frequent guest on MSNBC and has appeared on Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Wisconsin Public Radio, CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets. She has also written for The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. She graduated from Yale University in 1990, where she ran track and edited the campus magazine The New Journal. She lives in Madison, Wis.