Longtime political strategist James Carville suggested Tuesday that Republicans are running “very low-quality candidates” in the midterms because “they have a lot of stupid people that vote in their primaries.”
“They really do,” Carville said during an appearance on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour. “I’m not really supposed to say that but it’s obvious fact. And you know, when stupid people vote, you know who they nominate? Other stupid people.”
Carville’s comments came amid a discussion about the recent controversy surrounding Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel walker, a pro-life Republican who was accused of paying for an abortion for his then-girlfriend in 2009.
Anchor Ayman Mohyeldin and Carville went on to discuss other “low quality” candidates, including Doug Mastriano, the Trump-backed Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, and Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.
The “very low-quality people that vote in their primaries” are “producing predictably very low-quality candidates,” Carville said. “It’s evident right in front of you.”
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell previously suggested the House is more likely to return to Republican control than the Senate, partially because in Senate races “candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate. Either our side up slightly or their side up slightly,” he added.
Former president Donald Trump lashed out McConnell over the comments, calling him a “broken down hack.”
“Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that McConnell should spend more time and money trying to help Republican candidates get elected.
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight also previously noted that “weak candidates” are hurting the GOP’s chance of taking the chamber in November.
Polling averages from RealClearPolitics show Democrats leading in all three aforementioned Senate races: John Fetterman leads Oz 48 percent to 43.7 percent in Pennsylvania, Senator Mark Kelly leads Masters 48.2 percent to 44.2 percent in Arizona and Senator Raphael Warnock leads Walker 47 percent to 46.3 percent in Georgia.