Trump Dragging Down the Republican Party

[C_Clayton_Jones]

This is from Republican strategists fighting Senatorial and Congressional races.

From the deepest conservative states to more Democratic leaning terrain, Senate Republicans face a brutal political environment that has left the GOP needing to pull off a near-perfect run in a dozen highly competitive races to retain the majority. ...​

the national landscape, represented through the president’s weakened standing across the ideological spectrum, sent shock waves through Senate Republicans in recent weeks.​

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“Well, the president’s losing Arizona. And, you know, we think that he and Martha are very intrinsically tied together,” Kevin McLaughlin, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, explained during a 90-minute presentation on the state of the races Thursday. Trump won Arizona by 3.5 percentage points in 2016 and is now trailing Democrat Joe Biden, according to both public and private polling, which Republicans feel is why Sen. Martha McSally (R) is also trailing in her key race.​

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At one point, NRSC strategists believed Biden hit 50 percent in Georgia — a figure they found “terrifying” as they try to defend two seats in the state, which Trump won by five percentage points in 2016.​

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Trump won Kansas by more than 20 percentage points in 2016, but now his lead is in the low single digits, according to Republicans, after bleeding support in the Kansas City suburbs. A state that has voted Democratic just once since 1940 could now be considered a relatively competitive fight between Trump and Biden.​

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Even in Alaska, which has only voted once, in 1964, for a Democratic president in its history, Trump’s cratering to a narrow lead forced the Republicans’ official campaign arm to spend cash to shore up Sen. Dan Sullivan (R).​

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“You should’ve seen those [polls] three weeks ago when we had the president down,” McLaughlin said, explaining Trump was actually losing in Alaska this month and how the Senate incumbent’s race sunk with the president. “I mean, it’s not because of Dan Sullivan. I’m just telling you.” ...​

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Beneath the surface is another crack in the GOP foundation, as House Republican candidates are floundering in key states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, according to consultants in both parties. In districts that Trump narrowly won or narrowly lost four years ago, Biden is now solidly ahead along with the Democratic candidate, while in some districts Trump won by significant margins, the president is now narrowly trailing.​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-trump-republicans-elections/2020/10/30/9eacb5b6-1aaf-11eb-aeec-b93bcc29a01b_story.html

Republicans can always count on the ignorance, fear, and stupidity of the capricious, inconsistent American voter.

Republicans were supposed to be ‘down and out’ in 2008; just 8 years later they were in control of all three branches of the Federal government and most state governments.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The party sold its soul to an inept buffoon. That's what happens. Tough shit.

If Biden wins, we'll then have to turn our attention to stopping the Dems from going too far.

Too bad we've convinced ourselves that we're in a winner-take-all environment.

The GOP sold its soul some 50 years ago – the Southern Strategy, the Christian right, pandering to racists and bigots – Trump is merely a manifestation of the evil that is the GOP.

the democrats lost theirs not long after that.....

 

[Zorro!]

Trump Dragging Down the Republican Party

Fake News. Republicans had a much better election than President Trump did. Susan Collins, for example, beat her opponent like a rented mule even while Biden carried the state, but, more importantly, Dems face planted in State Legislative races for the seats that will redistrict their states for the next 5 House elections.

So far, Democrats have not flipped a single statehouse chamber in its favor. And it remained completely blocked from the map-making process in several key states — including Texas, North Carolina and Florida, which could have a combined 82 congressional seats by 2022 — where the GOP retained control of the state legislatures.

Defying Fake News Media predictions, Republicans appear poised to hold on to the Senate, gain seats in the House and pick up a governorship in Montana, defying all expectations. But it is the victories they won in state legislatures that are the most consequential of all, giving the GOP outsize influence over the congressional and legislative redistricting process that begins early next year.

After the 2019 elections, Republicans were already set to have total control over the crafting of more than twice as many congressional seats as Democrats. And Dems weak showing in 2020, Dems failed to pick up any ground giving Republicans another chance to draw the maps for the next five election cycles.

Republicans appeared to have flipped both the state House and Senate in New Hampshire — and more importantly to them, they blocked Democrats from making gains after Dems spent obscene amounts of campaign cash.

“The results will put the Republican Party in a position where we're able to secure a decade of power across the country,” said Austin Chambers, the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee. “And it’s something that the Democrats were desperate for, and they came up well short.”

Democrats missed nearly all of their top targets — though there's a slight chance they could gain control in the Arizona House and Senate. Even Party operatives conceded they are not on track to win the Michigan or the Iowa houses, either chamber in Pennsylvania or the Minnesota state Senate, which was their overwhelming longing.

Democrats did not even flip the two seats needed to claim the majority in Minnesota’s upper chamber. That outcome will not allow them to protect Democrat incumbents clustered around the Twin Cities next year when Minnesota loses a seat in the next redistricting.

Their biggest faceplant came in the seat-rich state of Texas, Democrats only needed nine seats to reclaim the majority. Though some races remain uncalled, so far on the net, Dems were able to gain.

Texas Republicans will have total authority over the drawing of as many as 39 congressional districts in the state. Despite targeting 10 districts, Democrats failed to flip even a single targeted seat in 2020.

Republicans are touting the legislative election results noting how DLCC, a new group called Forward Majority and other outside interests spent major sums of money to secure down-ballot wins and came up with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Forward Majority spent more than $32 million in an effort to flip state legislative chambers in Florida, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina. Democrats needed to win four seats to flip Florida’s state Senate — and they were targeting key state House races in an effort to shrink the GOP majority there.

Instead, Democrats saw a loss of House seats in Florida, the nation’s largest battleground state, which Trump won on Tuesday night.

‘A decade of power’: Statehouse wins position GOP to dominate redistricting

Democrats spent big to take control of state legislatures but lost their key targets. Now they’ll be on the sidelines as new maps are drawn.

www.politico.com

 

[Zorro!]

This race is more than defeating Trump

Dems need to dominate the down ballot prior to redistricting from the 2020 census. That will end the Republican Filibuster that allowed them to hold the House for most of the last decade

That's really not true. Even if Biden loses both houses of Congress but wins the presidency, he'll just rule by Executive Decree, at least until he can get the states of DC and Puerto Rico admitted and load up 4 more liberal senators and several representatives too.

DC Statehood requires a Constitutional Amendment. Puerto Rico statehood requires both Houses of Congress.

 

[Toro]

Interesting fact:

The statewide House vote for Republicans is running 1%-3% higher than the vote for Trump in the state in at least GA WI and PA.

All the votes are not in yet, so this may change. But had Trump performed in line with the party's Congressional vote tally, Trump may have won re-election.

This is evidence that Trump was hurting the party, not helping it.

 

[Zorro!]

Interesting fact:

The statewide House vote for Republicans is running 1%-3% higher than the vote for Trump in the state in at least GA WI and PA.

All the votes are not in yet, so this may change. But had Trump performed in line with the party's Congressional vote tally, Trump may have won re-election.

This is evidence that Trump was hurting the party, not helping it.

Actually it's evidence that Trump didn't drag the party down. The GOP had a better election than Trump did.