Loudest Republican voice against 'send her back' in Wisconsin is a congressman from Trump country

MADISON - Wisconsin Republicans have tried their best to steer clear of the aftermath of President Donald Trump's use of a racist trope that led thousands of his supporters at a rally Wednesday night to chant "send her back" about a black Muslim congresswoman.

One exception is U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who represents — of all places — the heart of Trump country. 

"This is not a good look for the United States of America," Gallagher, of Green Bay, said in a video posted on his official Twitter account after characterizing as "abhorrent" the chant calling for the deportation of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. 

"We don't want to spend the next year engaging in this endless tribal warfare and Twitter nonsense because we're not going to get anything done, the problems are just going to continue to get worse and politics are going to become an exercise in the absolute absurd," he said.

Gallagher also was the only Wisconsin Republican to respond to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel request this week seeking reaction to a series of tweets in which Trump suggested Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen who are not white go back to the "crime infested places from which they came." 

U.S. Sen Ron Johnson of Oshkosh did not respond to that request and on Thursday said, “With so many serious issues facing our country, it would be helpful for everyone to dial back the rhetoric and focus on actually solving our problems" but did not provide an opinion about that rhetoric.

Gallagher hasn't called the president's comments racist and voted against a resolution to condemn them. But his comments about Trump's use of a trope notoriously deployed to make Americans who aren't white feel like outsiders are the most critical of any Wisconsin Republican. 

The 8th Congressional District in northeast Wisconsin voted to elect Trump in 2016 by 17 percentage points, and Gallagher's hometown has been a favorite for Trump to campaign in — holding more rallies in that area than any other in Wisconsin. 

But Gallagher — elected in 2016 — has clashed with Trump before. In 2017, he publicly questioned Trump's firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey amid an investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russian officials to influence the 2016 elections. 

And in February, Gallagher was one of 13 House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to terminate Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border. He said he agreed with Trump's immigration policies but not with how the president wanted to implement them.

"Conservatives didn’t like it when President Obama did everything through executive action, and we can't continue to expand executive authority just because our party now controls the White House," he said about his vote.  

The move gave Gallagher a less than friendly reception at an April rally the president held in the Green Bay area. Chants of "build the wall" interrupted Gallagher's warmup speech at the event. 

"What you see in congressman Gallagher is he supports the president's policies pretty strongly ... (and) he's been unafraid to say sometimes the tone isn't right and we'd be better off focusing on these successful policies and less on the attack stuff we see from both the president and his opponents," Wisconsin Republican strategist Mark Graul said.

Wisconsin Republicans are largely keeping quiet about the episode at a time when their party has seen many of its members who break ranks with Trump facing backlash from the president and his supporters. 

Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said a number of factors including Gallagher's unconventional path to politics could be at play.   

"Gallagher's uncommon response among Republicans could reflect both his personal path into politics and the nature of his district," Burden said. "Having only a limited history within Republican Party politics in the past several years probably makes him less compelled to keep close to party leaders in every instance."

Burden said the 8th congressional district also is competitive despite its solid support for Trump in 2016. 

"Representing a more politically balanced part of the state around the Fox Cities might also provide incentive for Gallagher to demonstrate his independence," Burden said.

Gallagher faces state Democratic Rep. Amanda Stuck in his next re-election bid — a race that will be decided the same year as Trump's second term.

"As a mother, I have always taught my children to be kind and respectful of everyone. I would not accept this kind of talk from my children. l don’t accept it from the President," Stuck said.

Stuck said the president continues to focus on "hateful speech" instead of uniting the country and said Gallagher was not standing up to the leader of his party. 

"Rep. Mike Gallagher hasn’t stood up to President Trump a single time when it has come to attacks on pre-existing conditions, farmers, manufacturers, or student loan borrowers," Stuck said in a statement. "His record in Congress is one of weakness and touting the party line, and I'm ready to be a strong advocate for the working families of 8th Congressional District "

Graul said he didn't believe Gallagher's criticism of the president will have a negative effect on Gallagher's support among the many voters in his district who also have shown heavy support for Trump.

"I think (the criticism) will give him maybe short-term pain, but I think a lasting staying power," Graul said. "I think everybody respects the guy because he stands on principle."

Scot Ross, a Democratic strategist, said Gallagher's comments aren't a rebuke of the president.

"In Mike Gallagher's short career since coming to Wisconsin, he has proven that saying something and doing something are two totally different things," Ross said. "He has stood in lockstep with Trump in every disastrous policy."

An aide said Gallagher was unavailable for an interview Thursday afternoon.

Sean Duffy defends Trump's comments

Another Wisconsin congressman who represents key areas to Trump's support is U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, who lives near Wausau. He has worked to defend Trump this week. 

Duffy suggested on the House floor Tuesday that Trump's tweets were not racist because he didn't mention anybody's race.      

“I wouldn’t use the president’s language or the president’s tone. I’ve always said that," Duffy said in a recent interview. "But did I think he’s making a point that you have some people who don’t like this country and make anti-American comments? I don’t think he went too far (in that regard)."

The freshman congresswomen — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — have heavily criticized the president, especially over the conditions at facilities used to detain migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Omar was born in Somalia and moved to the U.S. as a refugee escaping civil war in her home country. The rest were born in the U.S.

A crowd at Trump's Wednesday rally in North Carolina chanted "send her back" after Trump singled out Omar as he lit into the progressive Democrats known as “the Squad.” 

Omar has especially drawn the ire of Republicans, especially after an anti-Semitic tweet from 2012 surfaced in which she accused Israel of having "hypnotized the world." She then sparked more outrage with tweets criticizing the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups.

Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, didn't comment directly on Republican lawmakers' reaction to the president's tweets and their aftermath but said the president and his allies "are deliberately fanning hate in order to distract voters as they enrich themselves and their wealthy friends at everyone else’s expense."

"The GOP’s divide-and-conquer strategy will fail in Wisconsin," he said.