There weren’t a lot of major policy differences shared during last night’s Republican Senate Debate, but feathers did get ruffled near the end.
In her closing statements State Senator Leah Vukmir attacked Kevin Nicholson for his time as a Democrat. “We know more about Kevin’s track record as a Democrat than we do about his track record as a Republican. And I think that’s the issue: who can you trust?”
Nicholson said his status his time spent as a Marine was all the credentials he needed. “For those who have said that leading Marines in combat during the course of two wars does not qualify as conservative credentials have to look inside them and decide what they think conservative credentials are.”
Over the course of the debate the two agreed on policy issues more than they disagreed, both coming out in favor of Donald Trump initiatives like building the wall, imposing tariffs on Chinese imports and more.
When asked about how best to handle government spending and budget overruns, Nicholson says he’s willing to stand up to Republican leadership and push for better spending packages and better budgets. “That means people withholding those omnibus bills to the last second, and you’ve got to be willing to say ‘No, I will not vote for that.'”
Vukmir said more has to be done to cut back on discretionary spending. “And that would be much better suited if we would bring that money back to the states and let the states administer the programs they way they know how and the way they see fit. They’re closer to the problems.”
Vukmir also told the crowd she’ll work on improving infrastructure by lowering the cost of building through the dismantling of the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage acts. “These were my initiatives. We repealed them at the local level. We repealed it at the state level. I’d like to go to Washington and say ‘Let’s get rid of Davis-Bacon.'”
Nicholson says the federal government needs to better plan out how to cycle their construction efforts. “You have to be smart about what you pay for, how you maintain it and then plan for it to end at some point so you can build a new one.”
That debate was hosted by Americans For Prosperity of Wisconsin.
Early polling shows most Republicans are still undecided in the race.