A wealthy Wisconsin businessman challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat in the Badger State tells
Newsmax TV the House speaker has betrayed conservatives by breaking promise after promise.
"I was Paul Ryan's biggest supporter here in the [first congressional] district," Paul Nehlen said Friday in an interview with J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
"I had the opportunity like a lot of people to shake his hand and he looked me in the eye and shook my hand and said he was going to work on our behalf and support policies or not support policies for this district. We've watched as he's broken every single one of them."
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Nehlen, a lifelong conservative, says Ryan has embraced big government, which flies in the face of his earlier allegiance to a conservative, less-government agenda.
"Come April of last year when Paul Ryan went for the Trade Promotion Authority, for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that was it," he said.
"I could not believe he was going to essentially decimate the U.S. manufacturing industry by bringing that in and championing it. That is not something that's good for this district."
Nehlen — a senior vice president at Neptune Benson, an industry leader in water filtration and disinfection — said he is prepared for a hurricane of opposition to his candidacy from the GOP establishment.
"Absolutely. I've had a long career in business. Anybody who's been in business knows that it's not a cake walk. You don't get to walk in," said Nehlen, adding he was not impressed by Ryan's recent "state of American politics" address before a bipartisan group of House interns.
"That wasn't a room full of reporters such as yourself who might've asked him hard questions. That was a bunch of people who were quite frankly thrilled to just be sitting there listening to him and that's not representation," Nehlen told Hayworth.
"That's not Paul Ryan listening to his constituents who want to know that he's in Washington working on our behalf. He was there working on his behalf….
"Paul Ryan's not doing his job. I looked around and said who else can do Paul Ryan's job? And nobody else is really stepping up for it, so I said I'm going to do Paul Ryan's job."
Ryan, who has served as a U.S. congressman since 1999, has reportedly amassed a $5 million war chest for his reelection campaign this year. The state primary will be held Aug. 9th.
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