Trump’s Endorsements Can Hurt the GOP
After he won, Ellzey said his victory proved that the people of his district wanted a positive “Reagan Republican outlook for the future of our country.”
Evoking my father’s name always makes me smile.
But Ellzey’s win – or Wright’s loss – makes me wonder about how much Trump will help or hurt Republicans next fall when they hope to regain the House and Senate.
When Trump enthusiastically endorses one Republican candidate in a primary and gets his followers to come to the polls to defeat the others, he runs the danger of hurting the party’s chances in the general election.
To win in the fall – as we painfully learned last year -- Republicans have to do more than just get out their base.
They also have to capture the votes of independents and moderate Democrats.
When I look at the 2022 mid-terms, I think, “Yeah, as a candidate you might want Donald Trump’s unconditional and avid support in the Republican primary. But how are you going to win-over those independents and moderate Democrats in the fall?”
Those crucial voters may end up hating you – because of their hatred of Trump – more than they hate the way the Pelosi-Biden Democrats are wrecking the economy, blowing up the Southern border and mishandling the war against COVID.
And so Donald Trump becomes a double-edged sword—you want his endorsement for the Republican primary, but because of him in the general election you’re liable to lose independents, suburban women and moderate Democrats.
And to win you are going to need those voters – just as my father did in 1980.
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