In Georgia and other states Democrats are doing the unthinkable, reports the New York Times — and President Donald Trump’s Republican Party doesn’t appear to know how to deal with it.
It’s been nearly 10 long years of Republicans winning Republican primaries by glomming to Trump’s side and out-Trumping their Republican adversaries. Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) won her South Carolina Senate primary against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) solely by virtue of Trump’s endorsement, which still carried enough weight in the Republican Party to carry her over the finish line despite a devastating gaffe on international policy in an interview. Democratic operatives called her “dumb as concrete,” and even many Republican voters felt she was woefully unprepared to lead the state as senator.
“She has a master’s and she’s helped people that are blind and she’s a lovely woman advocate. But I don’t feel like she has the experience,” said at least one of many 2024 Trump voters surveyed by the Bulwark.
Sen. Bill Cassidy went down in flames in Louisiana’s Republican primary this year after Trump endorsed his opponent. It did not matter that Cassidy voted in line with Trump on nearly every issue, even agreeing to confirm Trump’s controversial Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. despite strong reservations about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.
But loyalty to Trump is the litmus test for political viability within the Republican Party, regardless of other credentials or accomplishments. And Cassidy’s opponent managed to out-MAGA Cassidy among Louisiana’s mostly white Republican populace. Plus, Cassidy made the politically deadly mistake of voting to impeach Trump in 2021 for trying to steal the election with an elaborate fake electors scheme, and “miscalculated Trump’s vengeance,” according to critics.
Meanwhile, over in Texas, Sen. John Cornyn, lost his Republican primary to MAGA-tized contender Ken Paxton, despite Paxton’s long rap sheet of long list of scandals. But Trump officially opted to endorse Paxton, sending shockwaves of panic and doubt throughout the Texas GOP due to Paxton’s colossal flaws.
A Trump endorsement is all it takes for Paxton and other Trumpy Republicans to win their Republican primaries — but Republicans must now content with the fact that general election voters are not the hard-right MAGAsphere that decides victory in GOP primaries.
In Georgia, for example, the Democratic candidate running against Republican contender Mike Collins is using a strategy based in large part on taking advantage of Trump’s sagging approval ratings, with a Fox News poll in June finding Trump with net-negative ratings in Georgia, with 56 percent holding an unfavorable view of him. And — since the only thing it takes to survive a GOP primary is a Trump endorsement over witty conversation and solid policy — Collins’ weak standing.
Historically, Democrats running in deep-red Southern states have had to alinate their own party to get any traction at all, and even then their battle for “Republican-lite” only lasted so long before a Republican ousted them. But incumbent Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff “hasn’t moderated his votes or his message to appeal to a broader swath of voters, as Democrats in competitive statewide races often do in the conservative-leaning South,” reports the Times.
“Instead, he has dived into his party’s efforts to thwart the president’s agenda in Congress, and sharpened his attacks on Mr. Trump and Republicans on the campaign trail,” said the Times.
And not only is his message resonating with voters, The Times reports the Georgia incumbent is looking more presidential by the week.
“Mr. Ossoff’s strong position in the race, formidable fund-raising and increasingly prominent confrontations with Trump administration officials have supercharged speculation about his presidential prospects, a topic he stubbornly avoids,” the Times said.