What means most in winning votes, as Ryan and Kind take Wisconsin primaries?

UW-L’s Joe Heim weighs in

He may have gotten a bump from Donald Trump, but Paul Nehlen didn’t have enough backing to topple House Speaker Paul Ryan in the Wisconsin primary Wednesday. 

Nehlen received words of support from the Republican presidential nominee late in the campaign, before Trump also praised Ryan.

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political scientist Joe Heim questions whether endorsing a candidate really influences many voters.

“I don’t think endorsement are enormously effective in American politics,” Heim said. “The voters decide regardless who is or isn’t supporting a particular person.”

The voters or money.

A Washington Post article from 2014 states that 91 percent of the better-financed candidates win.

Longevity and name recognition would also play a factor, as is the case with Democrat Ron Kind.

He won his 11th term in Congress. But, his opponent, newcomer Myron Buchholz, got close to 20 percent of the votes in a campaign aimed at challenging the status quo and slamming Kind for supporting the TPP trade deal.

Was that margin enough to send a message to Kind?

“Even if he doesn’t win,” Heim said, “if he has a significant amount, it’s kind of a message to the incumbent that he has to pay attention to that issue.”

Heim says even without opposition in November, an incumbent like Kind needs to notice signs from the voters when they’re upset with positions he has taken.

Then again, Kind was a superdelegate that ignored the vote of his district in the Democratic presidential election. Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton by 13 points in the district, yet Kind remained in support of the now Democratic presidential candidate.