Wow! To shore up Michael Alfonso (why do they think they need to?), Breitbart just ran a misleading hit piece on… Wisconsin conservative Meg Ellefson, who is a respected person. Frankly, she’s done more for the conservative and Trump cause than Alfonso ever has.
If Duffy Inc. had anything to do with this simplistic hit piece, they should be ashamed. It reeks of desperation, but it reminds me of how a White House account has been trashing sometime conservative allies who criticize the MoU. It’s not smart to personally attack allies because they don’t agree with you on everything. It turns them into opponents.
The elitist Duffy Inc. machine has been pulling every lever of power to get the unqualified Alfonso, 26, his father-in-law’s old seat. It might work, but it’s been revolting to watch the arrogance and ruthlessness. They’re dumping a lot of swampy transportation lobbyist and Duffy campaign committee money into the northern Wisconsin district (Tiffany’s seat.) I think it should have gone to help Derrick Van Orden keep control of Congress, not be wasted on this Duffy Inc. vanity project in the safe Republican 7th.
Not surprisingly, elite national media outlets are now engaging. I’m just surprised the hit is against Ellefson instead of former Marine and Alfonso opponent, Kevin Hermening. As I’ve said before, if they had done this right – run Alfonso for legislature or county board first, send him to the military – I would be all in. He has potential. But the way they’ve been doing this has been very disappointing.
I find it very unseemly, so I’m going to take the time to explain how ridiculously dishonest this Breitbart story is.
Breitbart dredged up some 2022 column Meg wrote criticizing Trump. Their headline is, “Hit Piece Against Wisconsin GOP Cites One Anti-Trump Podcaster.” They’re referring to Meg being quoted criticizing Alfonso and Duffy in an earlier Axios article, which criticized Alfonso, but, contrary to the headline, not the Wisconsin GOP.
They’re using one old Meg column to try to discredit her on a national stage, to shore up Alfonso. Wow. Meg must be really powerful in the 7th CD.
The Axios headline was, “Duffy’s push for son-in-law’s House campaign sparks backlash.”
The Axios article reported: “Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is going all-out to get his 26-year-old son-in-law elected to a Wisconsin House seat, infuriating Republicans in the district who say he’s abusing his office and access to President Trump.”
Breitbart’s story says, “Establishment-leaning news outlet Axios ran a piece claiming ‘backlash’ against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s support for Wisconsin Republican candidate Michael Alfonso, citing one Badger State podcaster who no longer supports President Donald Trump and is backing another GOP primary candidate.” It then discusses Meg’s old column.
The Breitbart hit job on Meg is misleading in many ways.
Here’s what they leave out:
1. I’m also quoted in the same Axios article! Funny that Breitbart leaves me out and says only one person, Meg, was cited by Axios. My quote to Axios was this: “Activists ‘believe Alfonso’s resume is too thin to qualify him for Congress, and yet there is disrespect being shown to the grassroots, which taken together amounts to a sense of entitlement,’ said Jessica McBride, a contributor to Wisconsin Right Now, a conservative news site.”
In case they decide to go at me next, I’ll make it easy for them.
I voted for Trump every time he’s been on the ballot, even in the 2016 primary when many Republicans voted for Ted Cruz. And I’d do it again because of border security, SCOTUS picks, and the lifting of social media censorship alone, and because Hillary, Biden and Kamala were not viable alternatives. However, like Meg, my support must be earned, and I support some things Trump does, and I don’t like other things he does. I’ve criticized him when warranted.
For example, I’ve criticized his commutation of the federal sentence of Gangster Disciple leader Larry Hoover (who is next, El Chapo?), I don’t like the Iran MoU, and he shouldn’t have called the reporter a piggy. I’ve defended him many times, including over the faulty and ridiculous prosecutions against him, his immigration enforcement, the Iran bunker bombs, the Russian hoax, and so on. I am looking forward to a President Rubio or DeSantis. I am a conservative leaning independent who has never belonged to a political party. I am not affiliated with any campaign in any way and am not supporting any candidate, although I’ve said in the past that I’d be fine with Hermening, Jessi Ebben or Paul Wassgren (before he quit.)
I co-founded the most highly read conservative news site in Wisconsin, and we’ve written many articles favorable to Trump, when warranted. When we first started WRN, Breitbart’s senior editor Peter Schweitzer was kind to us and gave us advice.
Maybe I’m too complicated and hard to peg. So I was left out of the story.
2. If the Breitbart premise is that it’s false to say there’s Republican “backlash” against Alfonso in the 7th CD, they’re wrong. So the story saying Axios is wrong is itself wrong.
However, the Axios guy was lazy as hell. The backlash is real, but he didn’t do a great job documenting it. I didn’t even talk to him. He just texted me. No clue how he got my number. Never heard of the guy before. The backlash is well-documented, however. It would be easy for either outlet to document it, not with me, but with Republicans who live in the 7th.
For example, the chairmen of the Sawyer and Iron county GOPs have publicly criticized Alfonso as harshly as Meg has… this is publicly reported. Why did neither article mention that? Seems more important than Meg or me.
The Sawyer County GOP chairman, John Righeimer, even presides over Alfonso’s home county! (Well, the county where he now lives in Sean and Rachel’s house.) As with me and Meg, Righeimer and Iron County GOP Chairman Tanner Hiller are critical of the federal lobbyist money streaming to Alfonso, of Alfonso’s thin resume, and of the heavy-handed way that Duffy Inc. is trying to foist him on the district, with big spending, insider connections, and direct mail painting him as a working class construction worker. He’s been criticized for skipping four of five debates. Furthermore, he didn’t get the endorsement of the 7th congressional district caucus (no one did), and several key Republican legislators in the district have endorsed Hermening, such as Pat Snyder, Romaine Quinn, and Duke Tucker. Quinn has been very critical of Alfonso. So… yes, there’s Republican backlash. Heck, regular conservative voters routinely voice disgust over the swampy lobbyist money on my wall.
“They are trying to make it a coronation versus competing. If Michael (Alfonso) could win on his own, that would be different. It seems like a machine behind him is force-feeding us someone who is not ready,” Righeimer said.
“I think it’s an insult to not only the voters and residents in Iron County, but it’s an insult to the district and the state of Wisconsin that you put fundraising above the people you hope to represent,” said Hiller, 31, an Army veteran, of Alfonso skipping an Iron County GOP debate. He added, “I don’t think out-of-state money should force an opinion on our district. It’s just sketchy.”
I suggested the Axios guy contact people in the district instead. Not sure if he even tried.
Both articles were very lazy and agenda-driven, frankly, just in different directions.
3. Meg, like many people, has liked Trump at times and disliked Trump at times. Heck, Trump’s own VP JD Vance was more nastily critical of Trump than Meg has ever been. But I know for a fact that, by 2024, Meg did everything she could on the radio to get Trump elected over Kamala Harris, and this was very important because she and Vicki McKenna were the lone Wisconsin conservative women with radio shows at the time, and Meg was one of the only conservative talk show hosts up north.
I know this because I was a regular guest on Meg’s radio show. She defended Trump MANY TIMES after the lone 2022 article cited by Breitbart as its evidence that Meg “abandoned Trump years ago.” I suspect most Trump voters have been frustrated with him at times.
Furthermore, Meg did a LOT on her Wausau radio show to advance the conservative cause overall and to help Republican candidates try to get elected governor, to the state Supreme Court, AG, and to the legislature, for years after that column. Painting her as a consistent Trump hater is false. Boiling her down into this simplistic caricature is wrong.
Furthermore, it’s not why she opposes Alfonso. I know this because she opposed his campaign before Trump endorsed him. She told me she didn’t think he was qualified, and, later, she expressed disgust over the swampy federal transportation lobbyist money and Duffy campaign committee spending coming into the district to prop up Alfonso, 26, who has no discernible accomplishments. Did Breitbart attempt to interview Meg or anyone who has followed her career?
4. In an attempt to turn her into a false Trump-hating caricature, they don’t explain Meg’s long history of conservative activism. She got her start in the tea party movement. She led an organization that held conservative events to educate voters up north. She now has a podcast.
Meg lives in the 7th CD and owns property there. She explained in the Axios article that she is a former Duffy supporter. It says, in part, “Ellefson said she was an enthusiastic backer of Duffy’s early in his political career, but that she’s ‘utterly disgusted by this blatant manipulation of voters’ and is supporting one of Alfonso’s primary rivals.”
I’m afraid Duffy Inc. is just getting started. Hold onto your hats. Again, it’s interesting if they think they need to. I believe it’s the most entitled, arrogant and swampy campaign I’ve ever seen in Wisconsin, and I’ve been doing this a long time. Drain the swamp!
I’m guessing Kevin Hermening is going to be slimed next.
