Former Sheriff David Clarke feuds with national Republicans over potential challenge to Sen. Tammy Baldwin

WASHINGTON – Friction between former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and national Republicans continues to build as the controversial former sheriff makes noise about potentially running to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2024.

Clarke this week reaffirmed his stance that establishment Republicans and campaign groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee do not want him to run for Senate.

"I will not allow the @NRSC and NRC (sic) to leave me high and dry after the primary. They want nothing to do with me," he wrote on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "They can’t control me. They would sacrifice winning control of the Senate rather than get behind me."

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill and in Wisconsin, meanwhile, have remained largely silent through Clarke's attacks.

But asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday about Clarke's recent comments and potential candidacy, NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, a senator from Montana, laughed and said only: "Well, we're looking for candidates who can win primaries and general elections."

The back and forth with Clarke is just one storyline in an otherwise yet-to-form race to determine who will challenge Baldwin in 2024 as Republicans aim to flip Democrats' razor-thin control of the Senate. No major Republican candidate has formally declared a bid for Baldwin's seat, though a number of little-known political figures have launched campaigns in recent months.

Clarke himself has not said whether he plans to run for Senate, and there are no signs he is in the stages of building out a future campaign. Instead, Clarke has largely taken to social media to tout polls showing him leading a hypothetical Republican Senate field. Speculation about his potential candidacy coincided with the launch of his podcast this year, "Straight Talk With America’s Sheriff David Clarke."

Democrats in Wisconsin, meanwhile, would likely welcome a Clarke run and have continued to take shots at Republicans for failing to recruit a candidate with less than a year to go before the primaries.

Clarke has faced his share of controversy. His final term as Milwaukee County sheriff was plagued by jail deaths, and he more recently has drawn fire for statements suggesting "force" should be used against social media outlets that are blocking prominent conservatives and telling protesters who attended the Trump rally ahead of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, not to cooperate with law enforcement.

"The GOP is in complete chaos as David Clarke launches broadsides against Mitch McConnell and the NRSC," Arik Wolk, a rapid response director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, wrote in a text to the Journal Sentinel.

For now, it appears Clarke is happy to bask in the speculation.

Asked whether Clarke plans to make an announcement following his talk of support after a primary, a spokeswoman for the former sheriff said Clarke "is pretty straightforward and doesn’t speak in code so really nothing to announce."

"There is a lot that has to be negotiated before he makes a decision," the spokeswoman, Judy Wilkinson, wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel. "He will not be pressured into making a decision until these issues are resolved. He finds it peculiar that nobody from the NRSC or NRC have reached out to him in light of the fact that his name keeps surfacing in stories about running and his popularity with base voters in Wisconsin."

Wisconsin's top Republicans have remained mostly silent through the attacks. Asked this week about a potential Clarke campaign, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the state's top Republican, noted he does not endorse or "express opinion" about candidates during GOP primaries.

Pressed on what he thinks of Clarke, Johnson told the Journal Sentinel: "He's a respected voice in conservative circles and did a good job winning the Milwaukee sheriff's position, I think, a couple times... He certainly showed his ability to get those votes."

On Wednesday, Clarke continued his attacks on his own party. He accused Washington Republicans of being "against winning," adding that they "abhor winning."

“They’re afraid of independent thinkers. They’re afraid of can-do people," Clarke said on the John Fredericks Show. "They want the typical political behavior, your typical politician, your insider who just comes and does what they’re told, does what the leadership tells them to do.”

Clarke during the interview railed against Republican self-funders — the current top potential Baldwin challengers are multi-millionaire businessmen Eric Hovde and Scott Mayer — and called for the party to expand its donor outreach efforts.

He said his party needs a "facelift" and "some new blood" to go to Washington and "start doing work for the people instead of the typical political behavior."

"And that's why they fear me," he said. "Because they know they can't control me."

Follow Lawrence Andrea on X at @lawrencegandrea.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: David Clarke feuds with national Republicans over Wisconsin Senate bid