Republicans Need to Call Out Democrats for Their Meddling in GOP Primaries

As Democrats were touring the country screaming about Donald Trump being a threat to democracy, national Democrats spent about $54 million to boost Trump-backed Republican primary candidates who they knew would be far less competitive against Democratic incumbents in blue and purple states. The strategy worked better than they ever dreamed.

By and large, the primary candidates the Democrats supported who made it to the general election lost. This includes the critical race in New Hampshire where extremely vulnerable incumbent Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan was able to squeak by a Trump-backed candidate, retired General Don Bolduc. Many Republicans wanted GOP state senator Chuck Morse, who had the backing of popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, to prevail in that primary. Sununu won re-election by 16 points. As it was, Bolduc almost pulled off the upset.

There was nothing wrong with the GOP candidates backed by Democrats. In red states, they probably would have cruised to victory. But they were the wrong candidates to run in unfriendly states. And Democrats manipulated the primaries and Republican primary voters to get the outcome they desired.

Their manipulation included maneuvers to keep popular potential candidates like Sununu and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on the sidelines instead of running for the Senate.

New York Times:

It’s hard to say how much of a difference the Democrats’ meddling ultimately made. Some Republicans and allies of Ducey and Sununu say that other factors — including a shared disdain for the Senate and, perhaps, presidential ambitions — were more central to their calculations.

But either way, their decisions not to run loom large in the rearview mirror. Republicans failed to reclaim the Senate in large part because of unproven candidates chosen by Trump. Now, the recriminations are flying.

Ultimately, Democratic meddling led to primary wins by six candidates — none of them with any experience in government.

All struggled to raise money, build campaign infrastructures or appeal to independent voters. Only Vance won outright, with Walker’s race heading to a runoff next month.

In August, McConnell griped publicly about the “quality” of the candidates that Trump had saddled him with, amid a running feud with Scott over tactics, strategy and money.

Republicans are now having a public throw-down about just whose fault it is that they lost the Senate. Conservative elites are blaming Trump; his allies are blaming McConnell; Scott and McConnell’s allies are blaming one another.

McConnell was pilloried for his criticism and is being blamed for the party’s midterm losses. But if experience in running a campaign is an important “quality” in running for office successfully, McConnell wasn’t far off the mark. The biggest Republican Senate losers — Bolduc, Oz, and Masters — were not able to overcome their lack of experience in running a winning campaign. All ran against Democrats in winnable races in an election year where the intangibles heavily favored Republicans — even with the abortion issue animating Democratic voters.

And they failed. Was it McConnell’s fault? Certainly, his ambiguity toward his own candidates didn’t help. And his strategic misallocation of funds from his PAC also contributed to the losses.

But Democrats trying to manipulate the Republican primary process needs to stop. And GOP leaders need to call out the Democrats for their unethical attempt to manipulate voters.