The nationally-watched Democratic capture of the Wisconsin Supreme Court less than a month ago and the resulting fervor among Democrats nationwide fueled widespread conclusions that Republicans were doomed in the Badger State.
In just the last week, however, Republicans are growing a bit confident that they are on the rebound and might have an excellent chance of unseating liberal Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2024.
This budding enthusiasm about Republican chances of taking a Senate seat comes at a time when conservative Rep. Tom Tiffany is increasingly considered a likely carrier of the GOP banner against Baldwin.
Tiffany recently told reporters he would do what is "best for the state of Wisconsin. ... You've got a career politician in Tammy Baldwin. Why do we have the highest inflation since the 1970s? Cost of living has gone through the roof for people in Wisconsin.
"Why do you have the high energy costs that are going up once again? It's because of career politicians like Tammy Baldwin."
Tiffany, 65, declared that there "needs to be changes made" in the Senate and his eventual decision on whether to run would not be influenced by others running.
Coupled with his signature hardline stance against illegal immigration, the three-term House member votes the conservative line on cultural and economic issues.
But even as Tiffany is simply being boomed as Baldwin's opponent, there is obvious enthusiasm for him among the Republican Party's right-of-center grassroots.
"Tom Tiffany is a good man and can win," said Van Mobley, president of the Board of Trustees for the village of Thiensville and one of Donald Trump's earliest supporters in the Badger State.
"He will work hard and is tough. His America First economic approach will match up well against Baldwin's traditional economic themes and by Election Day, Wisconsinites will have had a belly full of her woke nonsense."
Mobley predicted to Newsmax that "a Tiffany/Baldwin matchup would turn out like the old matchups between [GOP Sen.] Ron Johnson and [former Democratic Sen.] Russ Feingold — and shake the political establishment."
Entrepreneur Johnson came out of nowhere in 2010 to unseat three-term incumbent Feingold and then won a rematch with him in '16. Last year, Johnson secured his third term in a tight battle with Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
Barely three years after he won his House seat in a special election, Tiffany appears a very probable candidate for the Senate because of a reason unrelated to issues or voting patterns: the likely gerrymandering of his 7th U.S. House by the Supreme Court, now in Democratic hands by 4-to-3.
"Tom is going to be odd man out when the new court gets its hands on the redistricting plan," predicted one Republican strategist in Madison. "So it would be a smart move for him to go double or nothing and run for the Senate next year."
The same strategist told us that "Wisconsin is becoming Pennsylvania of the 1990s — Alabama with Madison and Milwaukee in between. Wisconsin is a purple state that picks its elected officials mostly by deciding if they could sit down and have a beer with them.
"In some cases, the decision comes down to who would they hate least to sit down and have a beer with. Also, advertising is fairly inexpensive, so West Coast tech oligarchs can send $500,000 in and really have it move the needle."
All of this could spell Tom Tiffany unseating Tammy Baldwin. Certainly, a contest between the two would, in Mobley's words, "shake up the political establishment."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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