ELECTIONS

Scott Walker and GOP Senate candidates say they oppose a Harley boycott after avoiding the issue

Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - GOP Gov. Scott Walker and the two Republicans running for U.S. Senate broke with President Donald Trump and said they oppose a boycott of Harley-Davidson Inc. on Monday after avoiding the issue for as long as they could before Tuesday's primaries.

For more than 24 hours, Walker would not say if he supported or opposed a boycott, but late Monday he came out against it.

"As I said yesterday, I want Harley-Davidson to prosper here in the State of WI — so of course I don’t want a boycott of Harley-Davidson," Walker tweeted. "And one of the best ways for that to happen is to do what the President has called for and that is get to no tariffs as soon as possible."

Walker took that stance hours after Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson said he disagreed with the president on a boycott while supporting his overall trade policy.

“No, I don’t want to see Harley-Davidson boycotted because I want to see them succeeding and selling into new markets without tariffs and that’s going to be the goal,” Nicholson said Monday on WTMJ-AM (620).

“The president’s case is, ‘Look, let’s all get on board with this plan to keep the focus on getting rid of tariffs abroad.’ He’s got the right objective on that and he needs to keep his focus on that.”

Nicholson's primary opponent, state Sen. Leah Vukmir of Brookfield, refused to say what she thought of a boycott, but her campaign manager changed course Monday after Nicholson and Walker said they opposed a boycott.

"Of course Leah doesn't support a boycott, but she supports the president's effort to eliminate trade barriers and get better deals for our country," Vukmir campaign manager Jess Ward said in a statement.

The issue was thrust upon the candidates — all strong backers of Trump — after Trump posted a message on Twitter saying a boycott of the Milwaukee-based company would be "great."

In this Aug. 2, 2013, photo, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker rides a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the motorcycle museum in Milwaukee.

The idea of a boycott surfaced at a bad time for Wisconsin Republicans — just before a primary that will determine who will face U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and which of eight Democrats will take on Walker.

Walker for a day avoided saying whether he supported a Harley boycott, issuing a statement that said he wanted "Harley-Davidson to prosper" but that did not say whether he backed or opposed a boycott.

Trump posted his tweet soon after the New York Times published a story that quoted Harley owners who were critical of the company's plans to move some production overseas.

"Many @harleydavidson owners plan to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas. Great!" Trump tweeted.

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The company says it is moving the production of motorcycles destined for Europe to factories in Thailand, India and Brazil in response to the European Union putting steep tariffs on motorcycles made in the U.S.

Trump has contended Harley was going to move some production overseas regardless of the tariffs. Most Wisconsin Republicans share that assessment, according to a poll last month by Marquette University Law School.

Kevin Nicholson (from left), Tammy Baldwin, Leah Vukmir

Two-thirds of Republicans said they believed Harley would move production overseas even if there weren't new tariffs, the poll found. Just 21 percent of Republicans thought the move was happening because of the tariffs and 12 percent said they didn't know.

In the same poll, 86 percent of GOP voters in Wisconsin said they approved of the job Trump was doing.

That put Wisconsin Republicans in a tough spot. They didn't want to alienate a president who is popular in their party and who is quick to excoriate critics.

But they also didn't want to attack a company that is woven into the fabric of the state's identity and celebrating its 115th anniversary.

That situation kept Walker, Nicholson and Vukmir from stating their views on a boycott for at least one news cycle. When they said they opposed a boycott, they also emphasized that they support Trump's overall approach on trade.

"These are not two mutually exclusive things," Nicholson said in his WTMJ interview. "The president's objective is going to lower tariffs and make it easier for Harley and other companies from Wisconsin to compete."

Baldwin on Sunday criticized Trump on Twitter, saying Harley and other businesses needed "better trade deals, not tweets and trade wars."

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Nicholson responded on Twitter by saying the country needed trade deals that weren't "engineered by (Baldwin) and other members of the political class."

Trump began attacking Harley in June, when it announced its plans to move some production overseas. Then, Walker avoided criticizing Trump and Harley and noted he backs the president's ultimate goal of eliminating tariffs.

Walker has not said if he supports Trump's plan to ramp up tariffs in the near term.

Walker has long backed Harley. For years he has campaigned on his 2003 Road King and has joked about his large collection of Harley T-shirts.

Aides to U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan didn't say whether the Janesville Republican supported a boycott of Harley.

Ryan is not running for re-election. Bryan Steil, a Republican seeking Ryan's seat, said in a statement he supported reducing trade barriers to help Harley keep jobs in the United States, but did not say what he thought of boycotting the company.

Democrats seized on the issue — first when Walker would not say what he thought of a boycott and then when he posted his Monday afternoon tweet.

"Every time Scott Walker tries to thread the needle with Donald Trump, he looks like a career politician who's willing to be on all sides of an issue," said a statement from Scot Ross, director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.

Ross argued Walker "has to be dragged to stand up for Wisconsin businesses, farmers and families if it means crossing Trump."

"It's disappointing that the governor of Wisconsin doesn't have the courage to try to stop President Trump's attacks on Harley-Davidson," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett told the Journal Sentinel. "The governor should stop playing both sides, and simply tell the president to stop trying to ruin Harley-Davidson's business."

Former Rep. Kelda Roys of Madison, one of the Democrats seeking to challenge Walker, wrote on Twitter that Walker was "cowering before Trump — refusing to stand up to Trump's attempts to destroy an iconic Wisconsin business, Harley-Davidson."

State Schools Superintendent Tony Evers, another candidate for governor, wrote on Twitter that Walker was "trying to have it both ways."

"He’d get an 'A+' if he were in a class on Politician Double-Speak," Evers wrote.

Also running in the primary are former state Democratic Party Chairman Matt Flynn; liberal activist Mike McCabe; firefighters union president Mahlon Mitchell; lawyer Josh Pade; Madison Mayor Paul Soglin; and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout of Alma.

Bill Glauber, Molly Beck and Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel staff in Milwaukee contributed to this report.