Sen. Ron Johnson knows his state is one of the keys to the presidency in 2024, but he doesn’t want his Republican Party to blow a bunch of money on “stupid ads” in Wisconsin – he’d rather get boots on the ground.
Johnson appeared on Thursday’s “Clay & Buck” syndicated radio program, where co-host Clay Travis asked the third-term senator whether he’d consider joining the ticket if he were asked to be a VP running mate.
“If you had a presidential candidate come up and ask you to be vice president, I don’t know who would turn somebody down,” Johnson said. “I mean, it’s just – you’re being asked to serve. I stepped up to compete for a third term because this country is in big trouble.”
Solidly blue for decades of presidential elections, Wisconsin went for Donald Trump in 2016, then flipped back to help elect Joe Biden in 2020. Johnson said the GOP’s campaign dollars need to be redirected in Wisconsin — like most purple states, Wisconsin’s Democratic Party voters are concentrated in city centers.
“To win Wisconsin, the formula is ground game,” he said. “It’s grassroots. It’s get the paid field staff out there and doing what the Democrats do. They only have to do it in Madison and Milwaukee. We need to mine votes in every small little town and municipality in Wisconsin.”
He conceded that canvassing vast rural areas of Wisconsin would be “a much more difficult task.”
“But that’s where we need to spend the money,” Johnson said. “I keep telling people who run the RNC and these national campaigns to quit spending so much money on stupid ads! Spend money on the ground game.”
Listen to Johnson’s remarks in the video above.
