A long-shot candidate is blaming a supporter of the Speaker of the House for damaging his signature campaign prop.
Paul Nehlen says his bright yellow “Dump Ryan” truck was vandalized on Memorial Day.
“When your opponent’s supporters feel the need to vandalize your campaign property, you know you’ve gotten under their skin,” Nehlen said in a press release, referring to incumbent Paul Ryan.
Nehlen’s campaign says they parked the truck along the route of a Memorial Day parade and returned to find “one of the truck’s tires was intentionally deflated, some lettering was torn from one side of the vehicle, and duct tape was used to cover large portions of the truck’s message: ‘To get the dirt on Ryan, go to DumpPaulRyan.com.'”
They say trash was also thrown in the bed of the truck.
Nehlen has been driving the truck around Wisconsin’s 1st district to promote his campaign.
“The truck has really become a mascot for this campaign. People honk when they see the truck going down the road. They like to have their picture taken with it. They even post sightings of it on Facebook and Twitter when they spot it driving down the road. It’s a great conversation starter,” the candidate said.
“We’ve even had those squeeze-type stress relievers made up in the shape of the dump truck. There’s been huge demand for them among our campaign supporters.”
They filed a report with the Racine County Sheriff’s department.
“It’s unfortunate that the truck was damaged,” Nehlen said. “But this campaign is undeterred. In fact, we know now more than ever that we have the Ryan camp worried. We’re pressing on.”
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