Democrats are sounding the alarm over their own party’s campaign organization, raising concerns about the morality — and strategic wisdom — of propping up pro-Trump candidates in GOP primaries.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee received wide-ranging complaints from Democrats after the committee spent $425,000 on a campaign ad to apparently boost pro-Trump Michigan candidate John Gibbs over Representative Peter Meijer, Politico reported.
Meijer voted to impeach Trump but Gibbs, whom the ad says is “too conservative for West Michigan,” is seen as an easier target for Democrats to beat in November. However, propping up the deemed enemy could be dangerous for Democrats’ own messaging that some Republicans are a “threat” to the country, and could backfire if Gibbs wins in the Republican red wave.
“No race is worth compromising your values in that way,” Democratic Florida Representative Stephanie Murphy said, according to the outlet.
“Many of us are facing death threats over our efforts to tell the truth about Jan. 6. To have people boosting candidates telling the very kinds of lies that caused Jan. 6 and continues to put our democracy in danger, is just mind-blowing,” Murphy, who has a seat on the January 6 committee, added.
Representative Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) also raised concerns, noting that Democrats supported Trump in 2016 believing he would be sure to lose to Hillary Clinton.
“I do want to win these races, but it makes me worried,” Jayapal said, the outlet reported. “I just really worry about promoting election deniers and this idea that we’re going to be able to control what voters want at the end of the day.”
Representative Jason Crow (D., Colo.) said propping up pro-Trump candidates is a “terrible idea.”
“It’s very dangerous, I think, in this environment to be propping up candidates like that,” Crow said, according to Politico.
“Of course, it could backfire. And that’s part of the reason why I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he added. “Not only do I think it sends the wrong message, but it’s substantively risky.”
Meijer provided some of the harshest criticism.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing the sanctimonious bullshit about the Democrats being the pro-democracy party,” he told the outlet.
The Michigan race is only the latest attempt by the Democrats to bolster support behind pro-Trump candidates in contested races.
The House Majority PAC funded an ad elevating pro-Trump candidate Chris Mathys against moderate Republican Representative David Valadao in California’s 22nd District. In Colorado, a Democratic super PAC funded an ad saying Representative Ron Hanks, who denies Joe Biden won the 2020 election, is “too conservative or Colorado.”
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party also used funds to aid Republican state Senator Doug Mastriano, who helped organize buses to take Trump supporters to the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, which devolved into a riot at the Capitol.
“Dirty games like this are part and parcel of political campaigns. But when you talk about putting money behind candidates who want to come to Washington and destroy our democracy… it’s not a political, dirty trick anymore,” Representative Kathleen Rice (D., N.Y.) said, according to the outlet. “It’s unconscionable.”