Yesterday
The race I was most invested in in Georgia last night, interestingly enough, had a friend running against my guy. I’ve known John Kennedy for almost 30 years, and he lost last night in the Lieutenant Governor’s race in Georgia to my friend Greg Dolezal. Greg will be a great Lieutenant Governor.
Mike Collins will advance in Georgia against Jon Ossoff. I’m not optimistic there, given Collins’ baggage, but the saving grace is that increasingly voters do not split tickets and Georgia leans Republican, particularly with Keisha Lance Bottoms as the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee and a national generic ballot that barely has the Democrats up. We will see.
I stayed out of the Governor’s race in Georgia because I like both candidates. I suspected Rick Jackson would win. His entry made Burt Jones a much better candidate, but Burt came up short. Jackson will be an intriguing candidate against Bottoms. Between the two of them, he was raised in the projects and poverty and has a very interesting and compelling story. She could not run for re-election as Mayor of Atlanta.
What intrigues me is that President Trump, at the federal level, is great with endorsements. At the state level, he falls short.
Jackson beat Jones, but Collins beat Dooley.
In Iowa, Trump’s gubernatorial pick lost.
In South Carolina, his gubernatorial pick is probably going to lose to the much better Alan Wilson.
In Kansas, his gubernatorial pick is not strong.
Across the nation, Democrat led states are a hive mind of one-size-fits-all policies. With the takeover of Virginia by Democrats, that state is embracing policies that California, New York, Illinois, and other blue states have endorsed.
But in Republican led states, those states have differences on school choice, taxation, education generally, law enforcement, and mental health — across Republican states, the states have a much greater variety of public policy.
The future of the GOP is in that diversity. It is not tied to loyalty to Donald Trump. but still loyalty to locality, community, and public policy. That is why he is less successful at the state level in picking candidates.
In Georgia, Burt Jones ran as Donald Trump’s candidate. Rick Jackson pivoted from the primary being a Trump-like businessman to the runoff as a Kemp-like candidate. Instead of tying himself to Trump, he tied himself to popular policies Brian Kemp had pushed.
In South Carolina, the Lt. Governor has tied herself to being loyal to Governor McMaster and President Trump. Alan Wilson is campaigning on a specific agenda for South Carolina, and the difference is striking.
The states are the laboratories of democracy. Democrats have given that up for one-size-fits-all hive mind policies of the left as Republican states keep experimenting and battling each other to attract businesses and people. It’s what gives me hope about the future of the GOP as we begin to move on from Donald Trump.
Republican states are ideas machines and, at the state level, campaigning on those ideas still matters more than a Trump endorsement.
I voted against generational wealth and the entitlement that came with it. I also voted against Trump's endorsements. Collins will lose to Osoff, who has developed a reputation as leaning moderate (or at least, not as far left as other Democrats).
If Jackson wants to win, he needs to acknowledge Trump without kowtowing. He needs to stay Georgia-centric at all times. He does NOT want Trump's endorsement. He needs to stick to his story, because that is the thing that sets him apart from the political class.
Additionally, Jones needs to be a cheerleader for Jackson. He may have lost, but not overwhelmingly. The Democrats will be united and loud for Bottoms. Jones can mitigate that by putting his time and effort into promoting Jackson.
I hope Dolezal gets a new campaign manager. The mailings I received from his campaign insulted the smidgeon of intelligence God granted me.