Paul Ryan's Retirement Gives a Big Boost to the Most Prominent White Nationalist in U.S. Politics

Paul Nehlen was banned from Twitter. Then he was banned from the Twitter of the Alt Right. Now, he’s well positioned to be the GOP nominee in Wisconsin’s 1st District

LACHLAN MARKAY
04.11.18 12:23 PM ET

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to retire from office makes, for the moment, an anti-Semitic white nationalist who has embraced the so-called Alt Right the Republican frontrunner in Wisconsin’s first congressional district.

In a Facebook post hailing the news, GOP candidate Paul Nehlen called Ryan’s retirement “good news for America, bad news for special interests who bought Paul Ryan's vote. My focus has always been on YOU.”

In fact, Nehlen’s focus has not always been on “YOU,” his voters. Previously, his campaign criticized Ryan’s “silence on issues of [Jewish] media representation."

In large part because of his penchant for racially inflammatory or anti-Semitic remarks, Nehlan’s political prospects have not been taken all that seriously. Ryan defeated him by nearly 70 points in the 2016 Republican primary and the expectation was that the same would happen again this cycle.

With Ryan’s retirement, those expectations change. Nehlen is one of two Republicans who had vied to replace Ryan in 2018, and while other Republicans are likely to jump into the contest before the district’s August primary, Nehlen has more visibility and political experience than his sole existing opponent, Army special forces veteran and businessman Nick Polce. He also is personally wealthy, though local media has investigated his company, Blue Skies Global LLC, and found scant evidence that it does any actual business.

Asked by a Milwaukee radio station where Blue Skies pays taxes, Nehlen conceded, "No taxes have been paid so far precisely because nothing has been charged for services to date."

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