County GOP Chair: It’s Time to Get Behind Trump

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Florence, South Carolina. Photo courtesy of donaldjtrump.com.

With Donald Trump’s win in the May 3 Indiana primary and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s exit from the race, it was time to catch up with William Berglund, chair of the Republican Party of Door County, to see what he thinks of recent developments in this most unusual presidential race.

“It’s quite an adventure,” Berglund said. “As chairman, it is my duty to remain impartial. I haven’t promoted or really talked too much to anybody about either side. It’s my job to get behind whoever gets the nomination and to stay impartial before that. I could live with practically every one of them because they are all to me superior to the other side.”

Sen. Ted Cruz suspended his presidential campaign following a primary loss to Donald Trump in Indiana on May 3, 2016. Public domain image.

Berglund admits that this is the strangest presidential race in his lifetime.

“I’ve been doing this for quite a few years. It is strange,” he said. “I thought it a little strange that Kasich hangs on and Cruz just quits last night. I found that shocking.”

He is also puzzled by the strong anti-Trump reactions within his own party.

“I know there’s a lot of anti-Trump spending, and I know it’s a lot from within our party. This I do not understand,” he said. “I think these people don’t understand who the enemy is. Whatever candidate, you’re always going to have some for and against, and ideas you don’t like. There’s nobody perfect. Expecting somebody to be perfect is a little foolhardy.”

Berglund corrected a question about the rejection of Trump in Wisconsin’s presidential primary, one of 10 state primaries where Cruz won.

“We went for Cruz,” he said. “I can’t put it that way, that they rejected Trump. They voted for Cruz. They didn’t vote a negative vote, they gave a positive vote to the person that they liked.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Public domain image.

Berglund said he has no fear that the Republican Party will be hurt by the anti-Trump faction.

“Even our Reince Priebus (longest-serving chair of the Republican National Committee), who I know and I like, said it’s time to unite,” Berglund said. “I believe that, too. We have our own ideas and our own side, and Trump, with all his brash talk, is a pretty accomplished person. He’s not gotten where he is by being an idiot. I think government needs to be changed, that’s for sure. He may be the man to do it.

“I was glad to hear Reince say yesterday, it’s time to get on one side here. Certainly he’s chairman of the party, so he is establishment, as they say. These other ones that are talking so foolish with ‘Never Trump’ and things like that, I don’t know where they are coming from. I think they ought to rip up their Republican card. The people on the street seem to be speaking and I think that anybody that doesn’t listen to that, that mystifies me.”