Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. Republican establishment figures don’t get their way in a primary and promptly run to the liberal media to express how winnable races will now be lost, costing the GOP an electoral victory.
You’ve almost certainly heard it before because it’s exactly what happened in 2016 as the consultant class rushed to proclaim that Donald Trump simply couldn’t beat Hillary Clinton. He wasn’t going to just lose. He was going to be crushed, they said. Of course, he did win, going on to appoint three Supreme Court justices that recently delivered a multitude of long-sought decisions, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
No lessons were learned, though. The same establishment of Republican leadership, consultants, and pollsters are already looking to throw in the towel on November’s mid-terms. And to make matters more absurd, they told this story to Axios, a liberal rag.
Top Republicans, once confident about winning control of the Senate in the midterms, fear they’ll blow it after nominating several deeply flawed candidates in winnable states, according to conversations with GOP strategists, pollsters and other officials…
…”The environment is excellent for us. We just can’t fumble the ball on the five-yard line,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a top McConnell lieutenant, told Axios…
What’s happening: In several crucial Senate races, polling, fundraising and news coverage tell a similar story. The Republicans are on the defensive rather than surfing the national wave of dissatisfaction with Democrats.
It’s all just so tiring. I understand the notion that GOP primary voters didn’t select the best candidates, and some of Donald Trump’s endorsements were selfish and moronic. Still, the situation is what it is. This is not the time to run to the liberal media to express frustrations, signaling weakness. It’s the time to buck up, take the reins of the horse you’ve got, and do what it takes to win.
Herschel Walker is only down three points in the latest poll, with Brian Kemp up seven. That means there’s an easy path to get Walker over the finish line. Even Mehmet Oz, who many reading this opposed during the primary, has a rather simple path to victory. There is no reason to be talking defeat or “fumbling” anything in July before a mid-term. Do you want to do a post-mortem? Then wait for the deaths to occur first, and do everything you can in the meantime to prevent them.
But as usual, the establishment class seems to care more about being able to say they were right than actually winning and delivering for voters. Like it or not, primary voters chose who they chose. That isn’t going to change. The candidates are the candidates. My rule has always been that once the primaries are over, you roll with what you’ve got.
Giving up on Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona would be moronic. It would be throwing in the towel while leading by multiple touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Who cares what the polling says? Every cycle since 2014 has severely underestimated Republicans in Senate races. Play to win, not to be “right.” The GOP establishment would be smart to do that, including the donor class that is needed to fund these campaigns.