If ‘MAGA Republicans’ Are a Threat, Why Did Democrats Fund So Many?

Democrats, including President Biden, are railing about the dangers posed by GOP candidates they deem “far-right” and “threats to democracy,” even though Democratic support helped get many of them on the ballots in the first place.A September Washington Post article under the headline, “Democrats Spend Tens of Millions Amplifying Far-Right Candidates in Nine States,” described the more than $53 million the party spent in hopes of elevating Republicans it imagined would be easier to beat in the general election than other potential opponents.“All told,” according to the Post, “Democrats directly interfered in at least 13 primaries — six gubernatorial races, two Senate contests, and five House campaigns,” succeeding in six. “This is a deeply, deeply precarious and dangerous strategy to deploy,” a former Democratic congressman, Tim Roemer of Indiana, said.“It’s always a risk. It’s a gamble,” a political scientist at the University of Arizona, Samara Klar, told NewsNation. “If you’re trying to prop up the candidate you think is most dangerous … you are risking that candidate winning the general election.” Polls validate these concerns.In New Hampshire, the Republican nominee for Senate, Donald Bolduc, posted a one-point lead against the incumbent Democrat, Senator Hassan, in the Saint Anselm Survey Center poll. Not the result hoped for by Senate Majority PAC, allied with the Democratic majority leader, Senator Schumer, when it spent more than $3.2 million touting General Bolduc in the primary. The belief was that because General Bolduc had backed President Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Ms. Hassan would trounce him. Yet after securing the nomination, the general said, “I have come to the conclusion — and I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen.” Since then, he has “completely ignored” the former president’s endorsement, according to Newsweek, heralding instead backing from popular Republicans including the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis; the former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley; and Senators Cruz and Lee, as well as Senator Scott of Florida.In the Granite State’s second district, for $100,000 Democrats got Robert Burns to face off against the incumbent congresswoman, Ann McLane Kuster. But the Concord Monitor says Ms. Kuster — who “cruised to re-election in 2018 and 2020, winning by double digits” — now “faces a stiff challenge” from Mr. Burns, citing a University of New Hampshire poll finding the race a “dead heat.” Democrats spent $450,000 in Michigan’s third district to boost Republican John Gibbs against a pro-impeachment primary opponent, Congressman Peter Meijer, believing he’d be easy pickings against Hillary Scholten and flip the seat.It’s a race that CNN reported “tests whether Democrats’ meddling in GOP primaries will pay off or backfire,” and that Politico judged “one of Democrats’ best pickup opportunities in the country.” The result? FiveThirtyEight has Ms. Scholten only “slightly favored” by three points.Hoping to preserve their incumbent in Colorado, Senator Bennet, Democrats flushed away $4 million boosting GOP nominee Joe O’Dea’s opponent in his primary, and the race is now within a point in a poll by the Tarrance Group and two according to The Trafalgar Group.Mr. O’Dea’s pledge to campaign against Mr. Trump if he’s the 2024 GOP nominee has further insulated him against the Democrats’ planned line of attack, and the Dispatch dubbed him “The Republican Senate Candidate Who Survived Democratic Meddling.” Although other polls show Mr. Bennet with a lead, Fox 31 Colorado describes the race as “narrowing.” Even if Mr. Bennet is re-elected, the money wasted on Mr. O’Dea’s primary opponent and others like him might have made the difference if spent aboveboard.It remains to be seen if any of the Republican candidates that Democrats helped put on the ballot will prevail, but a sweep is not out of the question. None turned out to be cupcakes, despite Mr. Biden’s team — the ones out warning about threats to democracy — stacking the deck. That’s the thing about gambling: Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, even if you mark the cards. The best bet is to play by the rules and let the chips fall where they may, because in Vegas or voting, there are no sure things.

If ‘MAGA Republicans’ Are a Threat, Why Did Democrats Fund So Many?

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