The big idea
Democrats take a (big) chance on helping Trump-y GOP
It may be that “you can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy (and) you can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-America,” as President Biden said Monday. But maybe you can be pro-insurrection and get Democratic support in your GOP primary.
Around the country, in at least five states, Biden’s party and outside liberal groups are rolling the dice by meddling in Republican primaries, running ads designed to ensure the GOP nomination will go to candidates they hope are too extreme to win come November’s midterm elections.
The payoff is obvious, and so are the considerable risks: Even fringe candidates might actually win in the political environment of 2022.
Biden’s job approval rating is at 37 percent, according to an average of polls compiled by The Washington Post. Nearly nine out of 10 Americans say the country is going in the wrong direction and a majority of Democrats say the state of the national economy is poor.
That’s fodder for a wave election. (It’s too soon to say conclusively whether and how much a series of Supreme Court decisions, notably one rolling back a half-century of access to abortion as a constitutional right, have changed the national political mood in Democrats’ favor.)
And there’s little reason to think the Republican Party machine, to say nothing of GOP voters, won’t rally behind even the most extreme candidates. This could look more like Donald Trump ‘16 than Donald Trump ‘20.
“They’re playing with matches, and they’ve got lighter fluid on their hands,” longtime GOP communicator (and critic of former president Trump) Doug Heye told The Daily 202. “If one of these political candidates win, it’ll be arson.”
The Democrat’s view
A Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be more candid, told The Daily 202 the strategy “makes sense in places where we can win anyway because it will save us money if we don’t have to spend here, for example Maryland Governor. But that’s different than risking electing a MAGA Republican in a seat we’ll have a tough time to win in a rough election environment.”
My colleagues Colby Itkowitz, Dave Weigel and Arjun Singh looked at one of the races in question, the Michigan GOP primary pitting 34-year-old House freshman Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump, against former Trump official John Gibbs, who has said there were “shenanigans” in the 2020 election and baselessly claimed Biden’s victory looked “mathematically impossible.”
“Desperate to retain control of Congress in November in the face of stiff political head winds, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has become the latest party entity this election year to aid a Trump-endorsed Republican in a primary against a candidate who has resisted the former president. The $435,000 investment calls Gibbs ‘too conservative’ in ads and highlights his connection to Trump — a winking message meant to boost his appeal to conservative primary voters.”
“While Democratic meddling is nothing new, it has taken on a greater significance this year, becoming a go-to tactic for well-funded organizations aligned with the party in some marquee statewide races where GOP candidates have embraced Trump’s false election claims and have run on hard-right platforms. The results have been mixed and the strategy will be tested again in the next round of primaries, even beyond Michigan.”
My colleagues talked to Meijer, who told them “I assumed it might happen” and that the “high-minded rhetoric” of his Democratic colleagues, he added, had been “translated into galling hypocrisy” by a party committee running ads to boost his Trump-endorsed opponent.
Charges of hypocrisy
There were echoes of that complaint from Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a sharp critic of Trump who is retiring. He recently said Democrats are going after the very kind of Republicans they publicly worry are going extinct.
.@AdamKinzinger on Dem grps backing GOP election deniers in hopes of easier general election races:
“I think it’s disgusting.. don’t come to me after having spent money supporting an election denier in a primary, and then come to me and say ‘where are all the good Republicans?'” pic.twitter.com/SseetxLrO8
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 26, 2022
It’s not just Kinzinger making that point. Here’s Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.):
I’m disgusted that hard-earned money intended to support Democrats is being used to boost Trump-endorsed candidates, particularly the far-right opponent of one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress, @RepMeijer. Another reason to reform our broken campaign finance system. https://t.co/hhKYcLVmxk
— Dean Phillips ?? (@deanbphillips) July 26, 2022
With regard to political collateral damage, it’s also possible that the strategy reflects a sentiment you sometimes hear in private from some liberals: That the Trump era has proven there are no good Republicans, only those who have not fallen yet.
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