The US Republicans want to win back the majority in the chambers of Congress in the election year 2022. Quite a few are looking for the blessing of ex-President Donald Trump. But that is no longer a guarantee of success.
In the midterm elections to the US Congress in November 2022, the Republicans have a good chance of wresting a majority in the House and Senate from President Joe Biden’s Democrats. But the way there confronts the conservatives with a difficult decision: How to deal with Donald Trump?
If you ask Joe Kent, a former member of a special unit of the army, the answer is clear: The Grand Old Party has to stand firmly behind the ex-president! Kent is part of a broader push by supporters of the Make America Great Again movement, which seeks to “cleanse” the Republican party of those who are not considered loyal to Trump and his lies about the 2020 election and the storming of the Capitol, as reported by the Washington Post. He is running in Washington State for a seat in the House of Representatives, which his party colleague Jaime Herrera Beutler currently holds. Beutler had voted for impeachment proceedings against Trump for his role in the January 6th events.
Donald Trump is involved in candidate selection
According to the Washington Post, Kent told the Washington Post that he had little interest in arguing with the Democrats if he made it to Congress in the midterms a comprehensive Congressional investigation into the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump’s victory was stolen. “A large part of it will be to shame the Republicans,” the newspaper quoted the 41-year-old as saying want to return to a join-in-to-get-by-thing, attack. Either they give in or they shut up. “
According to its organizers, the goal of the Maga movement in the House of Representatives is to enlarge their group with currently around half a dozen loose members, reports the Washington Post. She should be given enough weight that she and Trump would be able to exert significant influence if the Republicans win a majority in the chamber. In addition, the movement in the Republican primaries wants to support those candidates who run in heavily Trump-friendly congressional districts, in which the primary winner will later almost certainly win the seat of parliament.
Since leaving office in January, Trump has been involved in the selection of Republican candidates and issued dozens of statements of support. Like Kent, many of the applicants in the GOP state and federal primaries run against established politicians. For next year’s House of Representatives elections, Trump has already supported more than two dozen Republicans, including five candidates running against incumbent party colleagues. If you are looking for your backing, you can wait for the 75-year-old in his residence Mar-a-Lago in Florida and undergo a loyalty check there.
“Although he has lost his social media megaphone, his support for candidates still mobilizes supporters of the grassroots, drives up campaign donations and in some cases can knock rivals out of the way,” the AFP news agency quoted political advisor Tommy Goodwin as saying.
Trumpism without Trump?
However, a public statement of support by Trump also carries risks. Political scientist Sam Nelson told AFP that it was valuable in the Republican primaries, but could be a hindrance in the actual election. “It motivates Democrats to vote to vote against the Trump-backed candidate.”
In addition, the power of the ex-president, who has no office or twitter, is nowhere near as great as it was during his time in the White House. Although Trump’s lie about electoral fraud has prevailed in large parts of the Republican party and its supporters, if you look at the year 2021 as a whole, you can see that he is no longer the kingmaker he would like to be.
Trump’s candidate for the US Senate seat in Pennsylvania has suspended his campaign on allegations of domestic violence. His support for Alabama Senate candidate Mo Brooks seems to be having little effect, as reported by the US broadcaster CNN. The candidate he supported failed in a special election to Congress in Texas. And some of those who, like Joe Kent, are running in the primary against incumbent Republicans who voted for impeachment against Trump are struggling with fundraising difficulties.
CNN cites Harriet Hageman as the most glaring example. The Trump-backed attorney wants to screw up Republican MP Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the intimate enemy of all hardcore Trumpists and a member of the Committee to Investigate the Events of January 6, her third re-election. But Cheney has ten times more campaign funds than its challenger, according to the latest information from the competent authority in October, reports CNN.
“To understand the state of Trumpism almost a year after January 6th, we can also take a look at its recent speeches,” writes the US broadcaster, referring to the ex-president’s so-called history tour together with the former Fox News presenter Bill O’Reilly. “They failed to sell enough tickets to fill some of the venues.” And in Dallas, Trump even got boos from some listeners on the show when he said he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus and had already received a booster shot.
At the beginning of November, Glenn Youngkin proved how successful a Republican can be without the support of the ex-president. The Republican candidate for governor in the state of Virginia preferred to keep Trump at a careful distance during the election campaign – and won the election spectacularly. He performed significantly better than Trump in the 2020 presidential election in the state, according to the AFP, especially in the suburbs, with independent voters and women.
Next year’s midterms could also be decided in the suburbs, where Trump is much less popular than in rural areas. For many Republican strategists, according to the news agency, the formula for victory is: “Go for a Trump-style policy, but keep the ex-president out of it as much as possible without annoying him. So Trumpism without Trump.”
Sources: “Washington Post”, CNN, AFP