Character Still Matters
I’ll just leave this here for you from Mark Halperin.
Putting up a serial adulterer whose own staff turned him in to the authorities for corruption was never a good idea.
I actually still think Paxton can win. But as I kept saying, the resources to save Paxton will cost the GOP elsewhere.
Texas Republicans threw a temper tantrum that could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. I’m already seeing some of them insist the National Republican Senatorial Committee must save Paxton.
No. The NRSC is on defense in Ohio, Maine, Iowa, and elsewhere while on offense in Michigan and losing Georgia and North Carolina. Trump’s hand-picked Michael Whatley in North Carolina is a sinking ship. Economic issues are putting the GOP behind in Ohio.
Talk to knowledgeable Republicans who understand the ground game, the donors, the money, the fundraising, and the sentiments on the ground, and they’ll tell you Susan Collins is more likely to win Maine than Ken Paxton is to win Texas.
The GOP has a problem.
What is most baffling to me is how the Democrats have worked so hard to force weak candidates out of races. From Swalwell to Platner, they did what they could. The GOP, instead, decided to run the weakest candidates.
On the upside, because character does actually matter to voters, Mike Rogers is probably going to win the Michigan seat. Why? A significant portion of Democrat voters recognize Trump will be gone in two years and they don’t want a socialist representing them in the Senate for six years.
Also, the scandals keep piling up. Want your mind blown?
Remember, El-Sayed says he is a Sharia adherent. Sharia adherents do not believe dogs should be pets.
Indeed, Erick, character does still matter, and it always has. It matters for the future of America. The problem for the Republican Party is that it does not matter to the MAGAs. They either ignore, or perhaps even admire, the dishonesty, the corruption, and the moral and ethical depravity if it comes from their tribe -- this despite many of them being evangelical Christians. They will support the candidate that Trump endorses without question and despite obvious weakness as general election candidates and, therefore, we lose winnable seats in the House and Senate. The MAGAs are to the Republican Party what the Social Democrats are to the Democrat Party -- each composed of angry and impatient radicals unwilling to temper their own versions of populist extremism in favor of the best interests of their parties or their country.
Add weak Republican candidates to a forever war that hits oil prices and a dogged determination to keep slapping tariffs on foreign goods despite the rising cost of living for Americans, and you have both the formation of a Democrat/DSA wave in November with a fracture of the MAGA coalition. The next few years are going to be rough ones.