During the campaign Trump fared poorly when he tried interfering with Republican primaries. His crackpot candidates all lost. He endorsed and cut radio spots for Renee Ellmers (R-NC), the first woman in Congress to endorse him. Despite his help-- possibly because of it-- she barely managed to come in second in her three-way primary.
You may have read yesterday that new polls are showing Democrats surging in gubernatorial races. The Trump effect looks like it will be kicking in up and down the ballots, even in the Republican-friendly states like Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia and Missouri, that have gubernatorial races this year.
You might not know it from looking at him-- with the $60,000 weave, all the plastic surgery and the cosmetics-- but Wednesday old man Trump turned 70. It was also the first anniversary of his descent down the escalator at Trump Tower in NYC to make his ugly, racist speech against Hispanic-Americans, a speech which has wrecked the Republican brand (again) among the fastest-growing voter demagraphic in the country.
Lindsey Graham faced up to the reality of Trump's victory over the GOP and urged Florida millionaires he met with just over a week ago to back the party's bizarre nominee. Then came the crazy reaction to Judge Curiel and ole Lindsey faced up to a different kind of reality-- a GOP Dunkirk this fall.
We've been focused on today's congressional primaries in races in California, New Jersey and Iowa, where Blue America is backing 9 candidates in competitive races: Lou Vince, Nanette Barragan, Bao Nguyen, Bill Ostrander, Alex Law, Jim Keady and Pat Murphy. But there are also primaries for House seats in South Dakota New Mexico, Montana and North Carolina. Many of the races in these states are not competitive.
This morning an inexperienced campaign manager called and asked me for some advise. She talked-- mostly complaining and gossiping and babbling about herself-- for over an hour and I doubt she listened to a word I said. But what I told her her under-funded, unknown candidate must do is tie their opponent to Trump. "Every time someone thinks about him, Trump should come into their consciousness.
Renee Ellmers is probably wishing all she had to face this election cycle was last cycle's opponent, gay singling star and American Idol fave, Clay Aiken. She beat him 122,128 (59%) to 85,479 (41%). After the district was redrawn by court order it's still safely Republican but now she's in a battle royale with fellow Republicans George Holding (who was redistricted out of a safe seat) and big name teabagger Greg Brannon who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and has major name recognition. The congressional primary was postponed until June 7 because of the new boundaries.
A gaggle of silly Beltway pundit types decided to raise the specter of a Trump candidacy putting the Republican House majority in jeopardy. I wonder who they're trying to fool. A competent DCCC-- which would take at least a year to build, possibly longer-- could win back the majority in two cycles without Trump, one cycle with Trump (or Cruz).
