Kevin Nicholson (Photo: Andrew Beckett)
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson is responding to critics who question his history with the Democratic Party and argue he’s not a real conservative.
The Marine Corps veteran was an active Democrat in the 1990s and early 2000s, including work with the party at the national level. A report released Tuesday also shows he he was paid for work with Democrats in Minnesota as late as 2002.
Speaking at a Wispolitics.com event in Madison Tuesday, Nicholson dismissed the questions over his conversion to conservatism as “nonsense,” and argued that they have been the result of what he learned as a Democrat and from life overall. “At the end of the day, I’m a conservative because of my life experience – period,” he said. “I’ve seen the policies of the Democrat party…they don’t help people.”
Nicholson said his viewpoints changed while serving in Afghanistan, running a business, and becoming a parent. “My life is a series of getting hit in the face with the two-by-four of reality,” he said.
Nicholson and state Senator Leah Vukmir face each other in a Republican primary later this summer. The winner will take on Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin in November.