How the Establishment Went After Brayden Myer

Throughout the 2026 election for Wisconsin Secretary of State, the political establishment decided to focus on fighting Brayden Myer. During the seven months Brayden was in the race, he faced nonstop attempts to stop his campaign, but he never stopped. This article will go into detail on some of the factors the establishment threw at Brayden.

Republican Party of Wisconsin

Endorsement Committee

Every four years when the statewide offices are up for election the RPW will hold a vote to endorse candidates in a primary during their state convention. The Republican Party of Wisconsin has a viability policy for candidates running for these positions to speak on stage and be considered for endorsement by the delegates at the RPW state convention. Their full policy can be read from this Manitowoc County Patriots post. To determine if candidates met the criteria in the policy the RPW put together an Endorsement Committee that interviewed candidates.

Brayden received his first email from the RPW, coming from the Executive Director Stephen Mueller on April 14, 2026, about the endorsement policy. Before that date no communication from the RPW was made. The following day, April 15, Stephen sent another email saying on April 17 the Endorsement Committee will be conducting interviews to determine if candidates met the viability requirements.

On April 17, Brayden traveled three hours across the state through storms to the Cranberry Country Lodge in Tomah for his interview. When he walked into the room no one greeted him and was told to take a seat. The following committee members were present:

• Chair - Kim Travis, 1st Congressional District GOP Chair
• Vice Chair - John Beauchamp, Jefferson County GOP Vice Chair & Jefferson County Young Republicans Chair
• Bill Feehan - RPW 1st Vice Chair
• Pete Church - RPW 3rd Vice Chair (Chair of Chairs) & Adams County GOP Chair
• Shirl Labarre - RPW Treasurer
• Tyler Vorpagel - RPW Secretary

Also present, but not on the committee, was RPW Executive Director Stephen Mueller and RPW Operations Director Jordan Wileman.

During the interview, a majority of the questions were asked by John Beauchamp, who was helping on other Secretary of State candidate Nate Pollnow's campaign, particularly with gathering nomination signatures before the interview (which the majority of committee members would sign Nate's nomination papers). Some questions asked were:

• Who is on your campaign team?
• What is your strategy to win the primary then general elections?
• What is your fundraising strategy?
• Is there any dirt on you your opponents could use?
• What is your campaign plan?
• Will you suspend your campaign if you don't win the nomination at the state convention?

One factor to be considered "viable" was a Secretary of State candidate had to raise $10,000 from at least 100 individual donors by March 31st. When asked what materials to bring to the meeting, the executive director only told Brayden a list of donations. Brayden brought that plus two signed letters from the bank confirming the amount that is in the account and more. The committee members looked through the proof that he met that factor.

Late at night the day after Brayden received an email from Stephen saying he was not deemed viable without explaining why. After asking why he wasn't deemed viable Stephen responded back by saying the two factors Brayden didn't meet are (3) having “an established campaign plan,” and “strategy on how to win the general election,” and (5) raising $10,000 from 100 individual donors by March 31. For factor #3 no definition was provided as to what "an established campaign plan" is or what they were looking for in a strategy, making that factor subjective. No matter what answer Brayden could give they wouldn't have said he met it. For the financial point, campaign finance reports are public, and Brayden's proves he met the criteria. During the interview, one member did mutter "looks like he met the financial requirements" and no committee members asked further questions after reviewing the proof. After receiving that email, Brayden asked twice what of those two factors did he not provide proof of and never received a response.

On May 6, Brayden filed a complaint with the RPW Constitution Committee, chaired by Katie Verzal, Vice Chair of the 1st Congressional District GOP, about how the Endorsement Committee failed to follow their own policy of conducting interviews at least 30 days before the convention, which they held interviews 28 and 27 days before. On May 12, only three days before the state convention, an email was sent saying this relates to policy and is not a constitutional violation. When asked where to go with policy violations Brayden was told Stephen Mueller. After asking if there is another person, since Stephen stopped returning emails, he was told Brian Schimming. After emailing Brian Schimming on where to go with this, and receiving no response, he texted him and did get a response saying he didn't see an email and try sending it again. He did and still never received a response.

As the convention approached, the only candidate the Endorsement Committee deemed viable was Nate Pollnow. After they did, they stated that during their report to the RPW Executive Board during their next meeting. After they made their report, the RPW Executive Board voted to approve their report, making Nate Pollnow the only candidate eligible to speak and be considered for endorsement at the convention. Since the RPW Rules Committee in a previous year removed the "no endorsement" option, the only option is to endorse, and when only one candidate is put forward it becomes an automatic endorsement.

On May 13, Brayden published the following press release regarding this situation.

2026 RPW Convention

At the convention, since the Endorsement Committee didn't deem Brayden viable, he was heavily restricted on what he could do. Brayden could not purchase a suite, purchase a table, bring his signs into the convention room, and put his literature on the seats, but Nate Pollnow could. Although also not a candidate deemed viable, Secretary of State candidate Cindy Werner was allowed to purchase a table by putting it under a nonprofit. On her table were her nomination papers and campaign literature.

Each day Brayden and a campaign volunteer were treated extremely poorly by RPW staff. On top of the staff watching everywhere they went and did, multiple times they went up to say negative things to them. Once was in the convention room. The volunteer was folding some of Brayden's press releases and Jenna Banfield, who the RPW calls their "WI Election Integrity Director," approached and said, "if you put those on the chairs I will throw them away." Another time there was an empty table. The volunteer put a couple of Brayden's papers on it. Soon, Jordan Wileman came and demanded that they be removed.

As it was coming closer to take the endorsement vote, during a break, some county party chairs met to discuss allowing Brayden to speak. One person in that meeting, Collin Braunel, Chair of the Manitowoc County Republican Party, said to the other chairs that he can't stand Brayden.

When the vote came, a motion was made on the floor to allow Brayden to speak. Since this was considered suspending the rules, a 2/3 vote by the delegates was required, and it passed. Brayden was then given two minutes, although was still not allowed to be considered for endorsement. Nate Pollnow was given the automatic endorsement. The staff had a video of Nate ready to go before he spoke. Nate also got to speak twice, once before and once after the endorsement.

Only a few days after the convention, the Wisconsin Young Republicans, which is for Republicans 18-40 years old, endorsed all the same candidates the RPW endorsed. None of those candidates are in the 18–40-year-old range. They did not reach out to the non-endorsed candidates to consider them.

Republican Parties of Manitowoc County & 6th Congressional District

On April 20, only three days after the Endorsement Committee interviewed Brayden, he received a call from Collin Braunel, Chair of the Republican Party of Manitowoc County. In this call, Collin accused Brayden of supporting another political party and having a conflict of interest being an At-Large member of the county party since the Manitowoc County Patriots had a speaker planned who was a member of a third-party, who never came. Collin also stated that he called the 6th District GOP Chair George Bureau and the 6th District GOP Vice Chair Kathy Broghammer to run his thoughts past them and then told Brayden the following day the Manitowoc GOP is having an executive committee meeting to remove him from the board.

The following day, with Brayden being on the road, he called in. Collin began by stating he already informed everyone of why they were there before he called Brayden so "you can plead your case." When he asked Collin to state why exactly they are meeting so everyone is on the same page, he said they are meeting because he alleged there is a conflict of interest with Brayden supporting another political party, even though Brayden told Collin several times he was not supporting another party, he has been involved with the Republican Party and is running as a Republican for public office as those are where his beliefs stand. One board member asked about this speaker coming to collect signatures, saying he’s running for office. Brayden told her he is not sure why she is saying that as he isn’t a candidate and isn’t collecting signatures (which could have been something Collin stated before including Brayden). When Brayden asked Collin both the previous day and during this executive committee meeting multiple times what part of the constitution he is violating, he could not answer. After asking more than once during this meeting, he snapped and said if Brayden wants to play these games, then he’ll pull up the constitution. He then said the two sections Brayden is violating are Article II. Purpose and Article VI. Ambiguity, which neither talk about not being allowed to be part of a group outside of the GOP that has speakers (you can learn more about and read the constitution here). When it was pointed out to Collin that proper notice was not given for this meeting (at least seven days notice is required for an executive committee meeting), he talked over Brayden, ignored what he said, and put him on hold to take the vote. When Brayden was taken off hold, he was told the executive board voted to remove him as Member At-Large. He was not allowed to know who voted which way or how many voted each way after asking, although it was found out shortly after how each person voted. Collin attempted to cover up the vote by telling Brayden he could resign and say it's because of his campaign, which Brayden refused.

The following present executive committee members voted to remove:

• Chair - Collin Braunel
• Vice Chair - Brett Norell (resigned not long after)
• Communications Chair - Nathan Mahloch (now a Co-Vice Chair)
• Election Integrity Chair - Sammie McDonald (now Treasurer)
• Membership Chair - Tim Thiers

There was one more member who voted yes but has since passed.

Essentially, this meeting was one hour of Collin yelling at Brayden over the phone, along with Tim Thiers, who had as much attitude and rudeness as Collin, yet doesn't know Brayden and has only been involved in the party for a year.

The next day, April 22, Brayden spoke with 6th District GOP Chair George Bureau. George said that Collin called him about this (before the meeting) and would go along with whatever Manitowoc decides, then took Brayden off the Rules Committee for the 2026 RPW Convention because "there's too many people on it anyway." George did this without speaking to Brayden or informing him before this call.

Not long after, a complaint was filed with the RPW Constitution Committee against the Manitowoc GOP for unconstitutionally removing Brayden from the executive board as he was voted in by the membership so only the membership can remove him. Another complaint was also filed against the 6th District GOP for George unconstitutionally removing him from the Rules Committee as he was voted in by the delegates at this year's district caucus so only they could remove him. After nearly four months these complaints are still pending, and the chair of the Constitution Committee has stopped returning emails after being asked twice over the past two months to provide an update. After this happened, the Manitowoc GOP made another constitutional violation by voting to have two Co-Vice Chairs.

Collin's anger toward Brayden began in December 2024. Right before Brayden ran for school board, he asked to meet with Collin to discuss candidates running for school board. When Collin asked who is running Brayden said let's meet up. When Brayden didn't hear back, he texted again, and this was Collin's response:

"no thanks, I have asked you multiple questions that you have refused to answer. It shows read receipts when you see things you know. I don't appreciate your disregard and don't offer my time to people who play games like that. I was able to get my questions answered by someone else."

During that 2025 election for the Manitowoc school board, Brayden, along with the other conservative candidate who was also a member of the Manitowoc GOP, had their signs up at a private location. In the middle of the day, Collin went and ripped both of those signs out.

During the 2026 election, a couple of people walked into the Manitowoc GOP headquarters and Collin was there. He brought up Brayden to these people he just met, and falsely stated Brayden didn't work as a congressional staffer. Also, earlier, a volunteer brought one of Brayden's signs into the office with a sheet of paper saying if you would like a sign to write down your information and his campaign will get it to you. When asking Collin if that would be ok, he said yes. The next time the volunteer went in it was hidden in the back and the sheet was gone and was told only the endorsed candidates can have their materials in the office. Then on election day Collin took to the internet to spread lies about Brayden.

Another Manitowoc GOP executive board member Nathan Mahloch, who chairs the Manitowoc County Young Republicans which Brayden is a member of, has held a grudge against Brayden since January 2025. That month was when elections were held for the Manitowoc GOP executive board. Both Brayden and Nathan ran for Secretary, but neither obtained enough votes, and even if both of theirs were combined it wasn't enough, yet Nathan decided to take his loss out on Brayden. At every event, he will not take his eyes off Brayden and will always "laugh" at anything positive on social media regarding Brayden. He has also called the former patriot leadership of the Republican Party of Sheboygan County "a bunch of f***ing lunatics" and is ok with how Robin Vos gets his way.

County Republican Parties

On top of the RPW, 6th District GOP, and Manitowoc GOP, the leadership in numerous county GOPs played their part in going against Brayden's campaign. Brayden was denied opportunities from county parties to speak, have literature or signs displayed in their headquarters, fair booths, and parade floats, but allowed Nate Pollnow to do all that. Some fair booths even had "voter guides" listing the endorsed candidates, which those county parties consistently posted on social media too. Certain county parties also put together and placed signs throughout their communities only for Nate Pollnow. Many gave Nate extra face time by letting him do auctions. Along with those, there were some more specific instances that occurred.

Walworth - A campaign volunteer was stuck in traffic on the way to a Walworth County Republican Party meeting. The volunteer arrived a few minutes after starting. After the meeting, the county Chair, Chris Goeble, began to scold this volunteer for arriving 15 minutes after the beginning of the meeting. Also, during this meeting, even though other candidates were present and allowed to speak, Chris emphasized since Nate is the endorsed candidate they are supporting him.

Eau Claire - The Eau Claire County Republican Party has a "Unity" resolution where if candidates do not agree with this resolution, they will not be allowed to speak at any of their county party events. At the 2026 county caucus, both Brayden Myer and Nate Pollnow attended. Brayden didn't sign any agreement for this resolution and Nate was not listed as a speaker, yet the leadership gave Nate face time by letting him do an auction. On top of that, the former county party chair, Scott Bolstad, was going around introducing Nate to attendees as the next Secretary of State. The whole resolution can be read on this post.

Brown - Seemingly out of nowhere, the Chair of the Brown County Republican Party, Doug Reich, began to use the official Party social media to go against Brayden. It began when he started to use the Party's social media to tell people to vote for the endorsed candidates. When people began commenting they were voting for Brayden, he began to respond, using the Party's social media, by saying Brayden filed a complaint against their county party. He never expanded on that accusation or provided evidence (the only complaints filed by Brayden were mentioned in the previous section, none involving the Brown County GOP). He also used the Party social media to say, "we are supporting Nate," even though many of that party's members were not. When people attempted to contact Doug about this accusation, he ignored everyone and put the endorsed candidates on the Brown County GOP's website as their "voter guide." To this day he has still not answered for why he made the accusations or provided evidence. During this, Brayden was a Guest member of the Brown County GOP, as he purchased a membership earlier in the year. Not long after this happened, his membership expired, with Doug saying his membership (that Brayden paid the price of a full year's worth) only covered four months, being for a 2025-2026 membership.

Polk - At this year's Polk County Fair, the Republican Party had a tent. In their tent, they conducted a straw poll for all the races in their county, including statewide, having jars for 20-30 candidates. Out of all the jars, Brayden's was the only one whose name was spelled incorrectly, both the first and last (which has happened at other counties too when a chair supports a different candidate). When a couple were going to put their straws in Brayden's jar, the Polk County Republican Party Chair, John Kraft, came over to discourage them from voting for Brayden. He was saying that with Brayden being by their tent they are in violation of RPW rules since he isn't the endorsed candidate, Nate is. He then told them Cindy is scheduled to stop at the tent the following day, not mentioning she isn't an endorsed candidate either. Earlier in the campaign, he went to an event to introduce and support Cindy. John also recorded an interview with Brayden early in the campaign to put on the Polk County GOP and his personal social media, but he never posted it.

Milwaukee - Right after Nate Pollnow announced his candidacy, Hilario Deleon, Chair of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, was calling people to support Nate. While Hilario remained cordial to Brayden prior to the RPW endorsement, that changed the morning after. On Sunday morning, the last day of the RPW Convention where only a breakfast was left, Hilario attempted to talk Brayden out of running under the guise of "unifying" (which he did to David Varnam as well). When Brayden made it clear he had no intentions to do so, Hilario became furious with Brayden as well as Brayden's volunteer. He demanded to know who is all on Brayden's team and what his campaign plan is, like in the Endorsement Committee interview. After that day, the next time Brayden saw Hilario was at the Milwaukee Juneteenth Festival. At the festival, the RPW had a tent on the sidewalk. When Brayden attended this festival, he traveled near the tent and stood near the middle of the street. When he turned to begin handing cards out, Hilario came running within seconds and told Brayden since he isn't the endorsed candidate he can't put any literature on the booth (which he never approached the booth to do) and he can't stand in front of the booth. When Brayden told him this is a public street, a campaign volunteer came over to see what was going on and Hilario began to be hostile to this volunteer. He began to say a few of the same talking points like at the convention again such as about dropping out. Then, the day before the primary, Brayden attended the Wisconsin State Fair where the Milwaukee County GOP had a booth. When he attended, he was talking with voters at the GOP booth when a few minutes later Hilario shows up. One of the volunteers at the booth was Doug Haag, Vice Chair of the 4th Congressional District Republican Party and member of the Milwaukee Elections Commission. After Hilario talked with him, Doug went up to Brayden in the middle of a conversation with two voters and abruptly told Brayden, in an extremely hostile manner, that he isn't the endorsed candidate and because of that "you are not welcome here" and "read the contract" (no one knew what he meant about a contract). Doug then said if you don't leave, I'll call security. When Brayden asked if he could at least finish talking to these two voters he said no, you have to leave now! After Brayden left, he then went to security to tell them to keep on eye on Brayden.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty Wisconsin - In July, this organization hosted a Faith, Family, Freedom Fest. Although not a Republican Party event, the individuals involved in this were all involved with the St. Croix Republican Party. This was a four-hour event, featuring many speakers, although around only 15 attendees when you don't count the venders, and around 100 empty chairs. At first, Brayden's team was told no room is available for another speaker (same with David Varnam even when Will Martin was listed as a speaker). When the event was rescheduled a couple of weeks later, due to weather, not all the original planned speakers could make that. When the new date was announced, each person who couldn't make it was replaced with another person. The day before the event, they added Nate Pollnow to the list of speakers. The main contact for this event was Matthew Rust, Chair of the Republican Party of St. Croix County and 7th Congressional District Republican Party. The morning of the event, Matthew was contacted by Brayden's campaign team. After receiving no response, word had already spread about Brayden not being able to speak but Nate being able. When Matthew was contacted by someone else that morning, he then responded to the team saying he may be able to fit Brayden in. At the event, Matthew told Brayden he will see if maybe he can fit him in. After a while of no indication that Brayden would be able to speak, a person approached Matthew about it and after he told Brayden that Nate is running late so he could go next (after Brayden spoke Nate showed up within minutes). Before Brayden was called up, Matthew told him to not make a campaign speech and stick to the topics of faith, family, and freedom. When Brayden spoke, he stayed on topic. When Nate went up Matthew allowed him to do his entire campaign speech, without a word about what the event was focused on. The committee that put on this event consisted of Matthew Rust, Tony Nasvik, John Kraft, Dominic Ventura, and a few others. At the RPW Convention, Dominic Ventura told Brayden he is a friend of Nate Pollnow then took a picture of the car and license plate of Brayden's volunteer. He did some of the emceeing at the event, putting in an extra line to support Nate when he introduced him but nothing when introducing Brayden. After the event, he took to social media to publicly go against Brayden.

Nate Pollnow

Throughout the year, Nate Pollnow came across the women volunteering on Brayden's campaign at various events. Each time he approached them and found out they were helping Brayden, he would immediately begin to talk down to them and say negative things about Brayden. One volunteer even said she typically votes for the Republican nominee after primaries regardless of who it is but because of how Nate bullied her, which bullied is the word she accurately used, she may make an exception had Nate become the nominee. At every event, Nate would make negative comments about Brayden, whether it was one-on-one or speaking to the crowd.

After the convention, Nate falsely claimed at an event that he "okayed" the other Secretary of State candidates to speak on stage, knowing that it was a vote taken to allow the others to speak, in an attempt to gain credit.

During the last few weeks of the campaign, Nate Pollnow was listed as a defendant on a lawsuit against him and WEC regarding Democrats wanting to recast ballots after gubernatorial candidates dropped out. After it was ruled they won't be able to recast, Nate, and the RPW, celebrated this as him winning a huge election integrity case. The Wisconsin Conservative Digest contacted Brayden shortly after this and asked for his response. This was Brayden's response.

In Brayden's response, he mentioned a 4th of July parade. What happened was Brayden was shaking hands and giving out his literature during a parade. As he was walking, the Tom Tiffany float caught up with him, and since Nate was following Tom Tiffany everywhere, so did Nate. From across the street, Nate ran behind Brayden, raised his hands and slammed them on Brayden's shoulders, creating a loud slap of the skin. He said "Brayden, what are you doing?" and continued to run ahead to shake voters' hands before Brayden could. Then, no more than five minutes later, the Tom Tiffany float catches up with Brayden again and Kyle Schroeder, Chair of the Wisconsin Young Republicans, who was walking with the float, tells Brayden that only RPW endorsed candidates can walk with Tom Tiffany (which is not Tom's campaign policy, Kyle made that up). When Brayden stated this is a public street, Kyle repeated himself.

The establishment media, especially True North News, played along with promoting Nate Pollnow, and only Nate. When Nate launched his campaign, which was managed by 1st District Young Republicans Chair, and who is affiliated with the Republican National Lawyers Association, Michael Hoffman, he put out a press release saying his launch event drew over 120 people, when an attendee reported there was only around 50, yet that is what True North News also reported. At the RPW State Convention, True North News interviewed Nate, and did not ask any other Secretary of State candidates to be interviewed, despite all being present. During his interview, Nate had his paid staffer, Nathan Trueblood of the Lincoln Media Foundation, there to tell him how to speak. When Nate would say something Nathan disagreed with he would say don't say it that way, say it this way, and True North News went along with it.

Jay Schroeder

Prior to the 2026 election, Brayden had only met Jay Schroeder at one event. At that event, they were talking, and Jay showed him a photo standing next to a stage Trump was on. When asked if he was working security, he said no, he just went up and took a picture, contradicting words made on the campaign trail about working for Trump.

The first time Jay spoke at an event for this election, he did not mention anything like Brayden mentioned during his campaign. Jay talked about putting a worm in the system to track people voting. At this event, he heard Brayden speak for the first time and Brayden's plan to secure our elections. From then on, Jay began to adopt Brayden's platform, claiming he said it first, despite entering the race months after Brayden.

During the campaign, Jay would call Brayden's campaign multiple times, and approach a volunteer at multiple events to get Brayden to drop out, even saying he only wants to be Secretary of State for one year (that is a quarter of a full term).

At one event, Jay was speaking to one of Brayden's volunteers. After talking for a few minutes, he said you're for Brayden, why am I wasting my time talking to you, then walked away.

During the last two weeks of the campaign, Jay went on the attack on Brayden. It began at the Racine County Fair. At the fair, Jay had a booth. During the time, Jay's volunteer, Matthew Snorek, was at the booth. At this fair, Brayden attended with a family member, who went and introduced herself to Matthew in a polite manner. That same afternoon, Matthew took a picture of Brayden at the fair and sent it to Jay, falsely saying Brayden's family was rude to him. Jay proceeded to make a post attacking Brayden and his family.

After that, a fake Facebook account was made with an AI profile picture, which Facebook labeled as "AI Content." This fake account posted a comment spreading lies about Brayden and his family. Jay took that comment and texted it to many of the people who endorsed Brayden to get them to take back their endorsements. Not only did Jay spread that, also spreading it was Jay's assistant, who he has paid $940 as of June 9, 2026, from his campaign committee, Joe Mueller. Joe Mueller not only spread it, but he also added his own commentary, attacking Brayden and his family himself.

On top of texting this comment to the people who endorsed Brayden, Jay would also text negative AI-generated photos of Brayden to them. He would also make comments to these people such as "you drank the kool-aid." When one of these people was talking to Jay about this, Jay responded back by saying "are you questioning my integrity?" Even weeks after the primary Jay is continuing to text AI-generated photos of Brayden to those people.

On election day, Jay was looking up every post on Facebook supporting Brayden and making negative comments. One was Dr. Frank's endorsement.

On August 30, 2026, the 58th Annual Chicken Burn was held, nearly three weeks after the primary. At the event, Brayden spoke on the beliefs of modern leftists and the steps that need to be taken to secure our elections. After speaking, Bob Dohnal, Publisher of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest, asked Brayden for a copy of his speech. When Brayden gave it, Jay went up to Bob and said, "Don't let Brayden get to you."

Manitowoc County Patriots