August 10, 2018 at 3:49 p.m.
Vukmir gains steam in final weeks of primary
State senator stresses her pro-life, constitutionalist record
Vukmir gains steam in final weeks of primary
A daughter of Greek immigrants and life-long Wisconsinite, Vukmir graduated from Brookfield East High School, received a bachelor's degree in nursing from Marquette University and her Master's degree from UW-Madison, her campaign website states.
She says she grew up in a family filled with many cousins and constant activity - a real-life big, fat Greek family, in her words, and she says she quickly realized that if she wanted to be heard, she had to speak up and not back down.
Vukmir says her parents taught her the importance of a relentless work ethic, and she worked her way through high school and college, from stocking at a sporting goods store to announcing blue light specials at Kmart to working overnight shifts in an emergency room while studying to be a nurse.
She lived in Wauwatosa for 30 years and is a member of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, though she recently returned to her hometown of Brookfield.
Standing up for conservatism
When she was elected to the state Senate, Vukmir says she learned early on standing on conservative principles would take courage and conviction.
She had become involved politically as a mother when her daughter was learning to read, her campaign website states. That's when she questioned her daughter's reading program, wanting to understand and see the research supporting it, and that, she says, got her in hot water with the school administration.
Next thing she knew, Vukmir says she was actively advocating to raise educational standards for students and ultimately ran and was elected to office, first to the state Assembly in the same seat once held by Gov. Scott Walker and then to the state Senate.
But once in Madison, Vukmir said the powers-that-be warned her she would be a back bencher if she voted with her conservative convictions. She did anyway, she says, and now serves as the Senate assistant majority leader.
In her tenure in the Legislature, Vukmir says she has consistently stood with conservatives to enact sweeping pro-job reforms, including Walker's signature Act 10 legislation.
Now, Vukmir says, she is traveling across the state pushing bold conservative reforms on the federal level, because she says the incumbent Democratic U.S. senator, Tammy Baldwin, would rather stand with Democrats in Washington and obstruct important reforms.
"We desperately need to change our representation in Washington," Vukmir says. "The U.S. Senate needs someone who speaks for us, someone who will bring the Wisconsin Way of working hard and never giving up to Washington."
Pro-life
Vukmir says the primary mission of her profession - nursing - is to save lives, and that her unwavering stance in protecting the sanctity of life is common sense. As such, her campaign website states, she is pro-life. She has maintained a perfect voting record with Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Right to Life and she says she is proud to stand up for the unborn.
"In the Senate, she will vote to confirm pro-life judges and believes that liberal elites in Washington want to impose a value system on the rest of the country that leaves little or no room for faith," her website states. "Leah will fight efforts to restrict religious liberty and will stand against efforts by Congress to limit First Amendment protections of those who worship."
Vukmir is also a strong advocate of the Second Amendment.
"Leah is 100 percent pro-gun," her website states. "She has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association for her pro-gun record."
Vukmir is endorsed by the NRA, and she says she opposes expanded federal regulation of gun ownership. In the Senate, she says she would oppose efforts to start a federal gun registry.
Vukmir says terrorism remains a major issue and the threat from radical Islamic jihadists and ISIS is clear.
"They want to kill us, and they are not going to stop until we confront them," Vukmir says. "There is a war going on, and as we've seen here in America and across the world, ISIS is targeting innocent civilians in its attacks."
Vukmir says she supports using any means necessary "to wipe ISIS from the face of the earth."
The state senator says President Obama weakened America's standing across the globe when he called ISIS the "JV team" and refused to enforce a red line drawn in Syria after Bashar Al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people.
Instead, Vukmir says American leaders must project strength and be prepared to back it up with smart military force, if necessary.
"Our enemies need to know that if you attack the United States or its civilians, we will respond," she says.
Law and order
Vukmir says she agrees with President Trump that law and order is a critical issue in the nation.
"We must make sure our police officers have the equipment and tools they need to combat violent criminals and keep our communities safe," she says, and her campaign website points to multiple pieces of legislation she has introduced to toughen penalties for violent criminals.
Vukmir says she believes we need to send a message to repeat felons that their behavior will not be tolerated. She also says those that keep Americans safe at home are the brave first responders - police and firefighters - and she stands with their efforts to keep us safe.
She also believes that what she calls unfair attacks on police officers by the fringe Left need to stop.
"Police officers deserve our praise and thanks, not protests and attacks," she says.
Vukmir supports a tough immigration policy, saying we are either a nation of laws or we are not. Her father was an immigrant from Greece, and her mother's parents were immigrants as well, and both families came here legally, she says.
As such, Vukmir says that, in the U.S. Senate, she will support construction of a wall on the southern border and efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in the United States.
She also opposes sanctuary cities in Wisconsin.
Vukmir says her guiding document is the U.S. Constitution.
"The government exists to enforce our freedoms and protect our rights, not to create new entitlements not specifically enumerated in the Constitution," she says.
If elected, Vukmir says she will swear an oath to uphold and protect the constitution, and she pledges to always refer to the intention of the founders when deciding how to vote.
Taxes and spending
Vumir says Congress spends too much money, but it's more than that, it's that Congress is addicted to spending our money.
As a conservative, she says she believes that if hard-working Wisconsinites have to balance a checkbook, Congress should too, and so she supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
To pay for all its spending, Congress has created a complicated federal tax code, Vukmir says, literally thousands of pages long and burdensome for many Americans, and she says she believes we must streamline the tax code by eliminating loopholes and deductions, while lowering tax rates for all Americans.
Finally, Vukmir says, smaller companies pay one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.
"Taxation of this magnitude negatively impacts our ability to remain competitive and keep our workforce in the United States," she says.
In the Senate, Vukmir says she will push for a tax code that is simplified, that increases competition with other nations, and that benefits all Americans.
Vukmir also says she understands why people are upset with Republicans who promised to repeal Obamacare and didn't deliver. She supports full repeal of Obamacare, and she says she won't stop pushing for full repeal in Congress.
Vukmir wants to replace Obamacare with free-market solutions that she says will lower costs and premiums.
"For example, Leah would allow insurers to offer a wider variety of plans that fit the demands of patients and families, not government central planners," her website states. "And she would support allowing individuals to buy insurance across state lines, increasing competition and choice."
Finally, Vukmir says she knows from her experience dealing with Wisconsin's Medicaid program that states truly are laboratories of innovation, which is what the founders intended.
As such, she says she supports more flexibility for states when it comes to Medicaid spending, and would support efforts to send Medicaid dollars to states in the form of a block grant - allowing states more flexibility to design their own plans and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
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