| Republican Party of Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Brad Courtney |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Ideology | Conservative |
| Website | |
| WISGOP.org | |
| Politics of the United States Political parties Elections |
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The Republican Party of Wisconsin is the Wisconsin affiliate of the United States Republican Party (GOP). The state party chair is Brad Courtney. The state party is divided into 72 county parties for each of the state's counties,[1] and also into eight congressional district organizations for the state's eight congressional districts.[2]
The party has inseparable ties with the origins of the national Republican Party, spawning from disillusionment from the Whig Party.
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The origins of the Republican Party in Wisconsin are ingrained with the history of the Republican Party in the United States. The first official Republican party meeting was held 1854 in the town of Ripon, Wisconsin.[3]
There was much internal conflict in the Whig Party regarding party philosophy on several issues, the most prominent being slavery. These controversial times are how the founders of the Republican party Alvan Earl Bovay and Horace Greeley met each other. Bovay was a lawyer in the state of Wisconsin in the town of Ripon. Greeley was a prominent editor of several newspapers (in New York) throughout his career. Both men met at the Whig convention of 1852 in New York where in they had a discussion about how they felt the Whig party was slowly falling apart. It was during this conversation that Horace Greeley and Bovay came up with the name Republican for the party they would eventually be considered the fathers of. According to Professor A.F. Gillman[4], the name was chosen from the Latin 'Res Publica', meaning 'you are as good as I'. The slogan was mean to display equality, as the big topic of the day was of course slavery and this expressed the party's desire to abolish slavery and promote equality.
After the convention, Bovay went back to Wisconsin and continued to fight for the Whig party, but with the presidential elections of 1852 dashing the last hopes of the Whig party, the party had decidedly ended. Many members went to the newly formed Know-Nothing party. What happened after this is described by Professor Gillman as "a spirit of unrest"[5]. What really lit the fuse was the passing of the Nebraska Bill. This lead to Greely calling for the first ever meeting of the Republican party in Ripon, Wisconsin with Bovay organizing the meeting place. It was held at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, March 1, 1854. The meeting was meant for the Republican party to not only come out as a party but to protest what they thought was an egregious act by the pro slave states in the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska act.
This set the stage for the election of 1860 and the climate in the US at the time led to the American Civil War. The election of 1860 led Abraham Lincoln as the first ever Republican president.
The current stance of the Wisconsin Republican party is in line with that of the national Republican Party. It includes such ideals as reducing state expenditure to help with both state and national deficit, promoting the belief that the Constitution protects life at conception, and becoming a nation that has alternative energy sources. The entire document, which was passed on May 22nd, 2010, can be found here[6] in its entirety.
The 2009 party convention was held in La Crosse on May 1, with the highlight being straw polls for the upcoming 2010 gubernatorial and senatorial elections.[7]
The 2010 party convention was held May 21-23 in Milwaukee. The convention was the largest in RPW history with over 1500 delegates registering and participating in the convention.[8] The convention endorsed Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker for Governor with 91% of the vote.
The Wisconsin Republican Party controls four of the five statewide offices and holds a majority in both the Wisconsin Senate and Wisconsin State Assembly. Republicans also hold one of the state's U.S. Senate seats and five of the state's 8 U.S. House of Representatives seats.
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