Wisconsin Republicans block Trump's primary opponents from the ballot

MADISON - Wisconsin Republicans blocked President Donald Trump's GOP opponents Tuesday from appearing on the state's primary ballot.

The move comes after Trump's backers in other states have canceled their primaries, even though Trump has an easy path to winning his party's nomination for a second term.

Two Republicans are mounting long-shot campaigns against Trump — former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. Those candidates can go around Republican leaders to get on the Wisconsin ballot if they can gather thousands of signatures over the next three weeks.

In a tweet, Walsh called Tuesday's decision to keep him off the ballot un-American.

"So yet another state in America wants to disenfranchise its voters," he tweeted. "That would make 10 states in which Republican Party bosses have cancelled primaries. All to protect their King."

Weld struck a similar tone on Twitter.

"@realDonaldTrump ’s party bosses in Wisconsin just told millions of voters they don’t deserve a choice in the Republican primary. That’s not how a democracy works, and certainly not the way the party of competition and freedom should work," he tweeted.

Andrew Hitt, chairman of the state Republican Party, said his party kept Walsh and Weld off the ballot because they had not qualified to get on the ballot in several other states and had done little campaigning here.

"If they're not on the ballot in other states, it becomes less relevant in Wisconsin," he told reporters.

Republicans also noted Democratic President Barack Obama had no opponents on Wisconsin's primary ballot when he sought reelection in 2012.

Wisconsin's ballot was set Tuesday by a panel that consists of five Democrats and five Republicans, including Hitt.

The panel is supposed to put on the ballot "the names of all candidates whose candidacy is generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States." State law leaves it to the panel alone to decide who meets that criteria.

Democrats did not try to stop the Republicans from keeping Walsh and Weld off the ballot.

Ben Wikler, the chairman of the state Democratic Party and a member of the panel, said Democrats didn't try to get more Republicans on the ballot because they believe it should be up to the parties to determine for themselves who their candidates are. But he said he considered the Republican decision telling.

"This is a president who appears to be terrified of even the merest hint of opposition of internal dissension," Wikler said.

The panel put 14 Democrats on the ballot: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Maryland Congressman John Delaney, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, new age author Marianne Williamson and former technology executive Andrew Yang.

Walsh and Weld can get on the primary ballot by submitting signatures from 8,000 Wisconsin voters by Jan. 28.

Weld hasn't yet decided whether to try to do that, campaign spokesman Joe Hunter said. Walsh's campaign did not immediately say what it would do.

The national nominating process begins next month with Iowa's caucuses. By the time Wisconsin's primary rolls around on April 7, the Democratic field is expected to be much smaller.

If candidates drop out in the weeks before Wisconsin's primary, their names will still appear on ballots here, said Meagan Wolfe, executive director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. That's because absentee ballots must be available well before the primaries.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.