Republican primaries, which were once a sparring ground for ideas, have too often of late become battles over attitude and tests of personal loyalty to Donald Trump. Some candidates seek to prove their bona fides by embracing false claims about the 2020 election being stolen, precisely because they know that responsible opponents will be unwilling to do so. Too many campaigns revolve around the idea that candidates should be not just unyielding or combative but transgressive. When voters reward this behavior, it is imitated further.
Just as cynically, Democrats — while professing alarm at claimed threats to democracy — have poured tens of millions of dollars into backing the most transgressive candidates, especially those who attended the January 6 “stop the steal” rally. The model is Harry Reid helping Sharron Angle beat Sue Lowden in 2010 and Claire McCaskill throwing financial support behind Todd Akin in 2012.
Democrats succeeded in elevating their preferred opponents in the Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Maryland governor’s races, and in helping Kari Lake win the nomination for governor of Arizona, too. The tactic failed in the Colorado Senate race and the Nevada governor’s race. Dan Cox’s victory in Maryland likely gives away the governor’s mansion held by Larry Hogan and, with it, the last defense for Marylanders from unified Democratic control. J. B. Pritzker has likewise probably ensured his reelection by spending over $40 million to prevent Republicans from nominating Richard Irvin; if elected, Irvin would have become Illinois’s first African-American governor. Remember that the next time Democrats champion their own “historic” candidates.
Democrats were at it again this week in Michigan, successfully targeting freshman congressman Peter Meijer for the offense of voting to impeach Trump over January 6. So much for gratitude toward people who stood up in solidarity when House Democrats asked them to do so. In some cases — such as in Colorado, Michigan, and Illinois — Democratic spending was the bulk of the financial support for these Republicans.
The Democrats have forfeited any claim to the moral high ground and revealed the total insincerity of anything they say about democracy or about responsibility to put country over party. Democrats have never been much for holding their own accountable for stolen-election theories or other malfeasance, or for tolerating members of their party who take brave stands against the party line. But this is a new low. It’s true that the ultimate responsibility for nominating fringe candidates lies with Republican primary voters who are willing — even eager — to support them. But if Democrats truly believe that people such as Lake and Doug Mastriano are existential threats to democracy, the last thing they ought to be doing in a red-wave election year is helping to put them one step closer to power.
For Democrats, anything goes in seeking even a modest advantage in winning office. Every Democrat involved in these shenanigans richly deserves to lose. And Republican voters should pay more attention to who wants them to vote for these sorts of candidates. They do not have the interests of Republican voters, conservative causes, or American democracy at heart.