Priebus Oversaw A Bruising GOP Primary After Calling For A Gentler Republican Party Just Years Earlier
Friday, January 20, 2017
By Shawn Johnson
The 2013 Wisconsin Republican Party Convention in Rothschild could have been a triumphant homecoming for Kenosha’s Reince Priebus, but under the circumstances, it had a different feel.
As head of the Republican National Committee, Priebus had overseen Mitt Romney’s losing presidential bid just months earlier. He had also just released what was commonly called the RNC "autopsy" report that roundly criticized national Republicans for the campaigns they ran in 2012.
"We haven’t won a decisive presidential race in 24 years. So what’s going on?" Priebus asked during his keynote speech. "I want to talk to you about that."
The autopsy was especially critical of the way Republicans had talked about the growing Latino community, including their references to self-deportation during the Republican primary. Priebus was asked by Wisconsin reporters after his speech how the GOP could moderate on these issues.
"Well, I don’t think it’s a matter of moderation," Priebus responded. "I think it’s a matter of kind of what our moms used to say: 'It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.' And I also think it’s a matter of using grace and love in your tone."
Four years later, Priebus oversaw a brutal Republican primary where Donald Trump began his campaign by attacking Mexican immigrants.
"They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they're rapists," Trump said during his 2015 speech at Trump Tower in New York.
Trump would talk during the campaign about wanting to punch liberal protesters. He would torment nearly all of his Republican opponents. Trump even attacked the RNC itself.
And yet Trump ultimately won traditionally blue states like Wisconsin with the help of Priebus. On election night, Trump brought Priebus on stage to thank him.
"Reince is really a star," Trump said as the two smiled and shook hands. "And he is the hardest working guy."
As Trump takes the oath of office Friday, Priebus officially becomes the White House chief of staff. It’s a lofty, if unlikely job for Priebus, who just a few years ago was advocating for a gentler Republican Party. It’s also a position that has many Republicans pulling for Priebus to be their voice in a White House that is anything but conventional.
Priebus had to work for everything in politics. Few people knew him when he emerged as RNC Chair in 2011. Late night hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart made fun of his name — Stewart said it sounded, "like something you would find in an IKEA catalog."
Priebus can be self-deprecating — he’s not averse to jokes about his own name. (Reince is short for Reinhold). But his friends describe him as energetic, opinionated and focused.
"Oh my god, Reince is the Energizer Bunny," said Wisconsin's Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos who met Priebus in high school when they were both active in Republican politics. They went on to be college roommates at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
"He has always been somebody who has been one of the hardest workers I have ever known," Vos said. "If it was trying to convince his wife Sally to marry him, if it was trying to make sure that he could get elected student body president, if it was going to law school and working for a law firm in Milwaukee which he set as a goal, all of the goals that he has set he has really achieved."
Priebus did fall short of one goal. He ran for the Wisconsin state Senate in 2004 and lost to Kenosha Democratic Sen. Robert Wirch. Wirch painted Priebus as a corporate lawyer from Milwaukee and himself as a third-generation family worker.
"It was my toughest race because he had so much money," Wirch said. "He was a great fundraiser."
Priebus amassed what was at the time a huge campaign war chest for a legislative race, but he lost to Wirch by 4 percentage points. Wirch said they didn’t really get along.
"I would say not," Wirch said with a smile. "He was an ideologue. I respected how hard he worked."
The loss was a blessing for Priebus, who took the helm of the state Republican Party a few years later.
His first election as state party chair in 2008 was disastrous for Wisconsin Republicans, but by 2010, the GOP base was energized.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel conservative columnist Christian Schneider said Priebus embraced the Tea Party movement and meshed its voters with the traditional GOP establishment. There were signs of that in 2016 when Priebus embraced Trump voters after the Republican presidential primary.
"If there’s anything he’s good at, I think it is kind of taking the mood of the country, whether it be anger, whether it be fear whether it be disgust with this policy or that and kind of channeling that into elections, into electoral results," Schneider said.
Schneider is no Trump fan, but he said knowing that Priebus is Trump's Chief of Staff gives him hope.
"For conservatives, for the people on my side, he’s kind of our guy in there now," Schneider said. "He can be our voice in the White House."
This is a common sentiment among Republicans, including Vos, who endorsed Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primary before eventually getting behind Trump.
"For all the questions folks had about Donald Trump before the election, for me, the simple fact that he chose Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff shows that he is looking for the very best, most talented people to serve in his administration,” Vos said.
Even Wirch, who doesn't care for Priebus’ politics, said he wishes him well.
"It’s good to see a Kenosha person make good on the national stage," Wirch said.
Priebus showed during the 2016 campaign that he was willing to fight on behalf of Trump. He helped put down a potential anti-Trump uprising among delegates at the Republican National Convention and later warned Republicans that if they don’t endorse Trump they might not receive RNC support in the future.
The question now is whether Priebus can use his power as Chief of Staff to influence Trump, or if Trump will continue to chart his own path.
Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2017, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
