Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson touted his fundraising advantage in the Republican primary and dismissed the big endorsements Leah Vukmir has been racking up since winning the GOP's endorsement in May.
"Look, I am the outside candidate," Nicholson told News/Talk 1130 WISN's Dan O'Donnell on Tuesday. "If you ever needed any verification, you got it."
Retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan as well as Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner, Sean Duffy, and Glenn Grothman have all endorsed Vukmir in recent weeks, but Nicholson said he is "comfortable with the way" the primary race is breaking down.
"I am not of the political class and boy does the political class know it and fear it," he said. "And rightfully so. I am going to call them to account on all their many failings and the things they have not gotten done in Washington, which is pretty much any kind of real solution to our spending problems, no real strategic investment in defense that's actually going to prevent wars before they start, and way too few members of Congress who understand what armed conflict is."
On Tuesday, a Super PAC supporting Vukmir started running an ad attacking Nicholson over his tenure as president of the College Democrats in 2000.
In a wide-ranging interview with O'Donnell though, Nicholson touted his conservative credentials and highlighted his endorsements from Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz while framing the primary as a contest between an outsider and what he called "the establishment."
"If you want an establishment politician who's part of the inside class that's obviously trying to protect itself as best it can from the citizenry, boy, don't vote for me," he said. "But if you really honestly want your kids growing a country that's true to its principles, that's not going to be mired in debt, and not stuck in wars that we never should have happened because we didn't have the defense posture to stop them, boy I'm your candidate and that's all there is to it and I'm not going to forget that."