WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan easily won his Republican primary Tuesday, defeating a political newcomer who had received a late surge of attention after being praised by Donald Trump.

With three-quarters of the precincts reporting in his Wisconsin district, Ryan had 84 percent of the vote, and his rival, Paul Nehlen, had 16 percent.

Nehlen rose from obscurity in the campaign’s closing days when Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, offered kind words to him on Twitter and later said that he was running “a very good campaign.’’

Those gestures thrust Nehlen into the middle of an intraparty feud between Trump and Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2012.

Trump said last week that he was not ready to endorse Ryan, who months earlier had vacillated over his own endorsement of Trump before finally offering it.

On Friday, Trump, under pressure to unify the party, reversed course and endorsed Ryan.

Ryan, 46, has represented his southeastern Wisconsin district since he was 28 and remains popular there, with approval ratings among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents above 80 percent.

But with memories of the 2014 primary defeat of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, still fresh, Ryan had worked in recent weeks to avoid any electoral surprise. Drawing on his nearly $10 million in campaign funds, he ran a series of television ads, and he spent last weekend appearing at events like Corn and Brat Days in Elkhorn and the Armenian Fest in Racine.

While Cantor was viewed by some constituents as having neglected his Virginia district, few would say the same about Ryan, who spends most weekends at his home in Janesville, Wis., with his wife and three children.

Nehlen, 47, who moved to Wisconsin in 2014, is an executive at a company that makes water-treatment products. He raised significant sums of money from outside Wisconsin and was endorsed by Tea Party luminaries like Sarah Palin. In a campaign video, Nehlen rode a Harley-Davidson with his tattooed arms exposed, offering to arm-wrestle Ryan in lieu of a debate.

Running well to the right of Ryan, Nehlen tried to take advantage of voter discontent with Republican leaders in Washington, saying Ryan favored the interests of donors over those of voters.

He also suggested that the country should consider deporting all Muslims.

New York Times

Republicans boost outreach to African-American voters

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee is trying to strengthen its outreach to black voters by hiring a new national director of African-American engagement and bringing on advisers and strategists.

Ashley Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, started this week as an RNC senior strategist and national director of African-American engagement.

He will be joined by Elroy Sailor and Shannon Reeves.

Sailor, who used to work for Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he will serve in an advisory capacity to RNC chairman Reince Priebus while Reeves, a political science professor at Alabama A&M University, will work with the party on creating a database of black voters.

Associated Press