Tuesday's primary election results were generally bad for President Trump and America First patriots. Two of his most important endorsements failed miserably, underperforming even compared to their dismal poll numbers. David Perdue and Jody Hice were trounced by voter-fraud-deniers Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger in Georgia. This established a string of losses for Trump-endorsed candidates taking on GOP Establishment incumbents.
According to WSJ:
In Georgia on Tuesday night, Gov. Brian Kemp decisively won his primary against the former president’s candidate, former Sen. David Perdue. Last week in Idaho, Mr. Trump’s candidate, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, lost her challenge to Gov. Brad Little. A week before that, Charles Herbster, the Trump-backed businessman who ran for governor in Nebraska and faced allegations of groping women, lost to University of Nebraska official Jim Pillen. Mr. Herbster denied the allegations; Mr. Trump told voters to overlook them.
Georgia’s governor race was perhaps the marquee primary test given it was the center of the president’s false 2020 election fraud claims that he says will boost turnout for Republicans this fall. He repeatedly attacked Mr. Kemp, calling him weak for not trying to overturn President Biden’s win there.
Does this mean Trump has lost his touch or, worse yet, his support? Not at all. It means the two things I've been saying since before the first primary this year are still quite true, even for Trump. First, it's always going to be tough to beat an incumbent who doesn't have a major scandal attached to them because many if not most U.S. voters like to go with what they know during primaries. It's human nature to assume that an incumbent who has proven they can beat Democrats will get the lion's share of low-information votes during primaries.
Second, and I'll continue to say this despite most disagreeing with me, is my belief that endorsements are mostly worthless. Are dedicated Trump fans going to take his endorsement into account? Sure. But your standard mid- to high-information voter is going to be the one who's even aware of Trump's or anyone's endorsement, and those voters are more likely to do the research to make their own decisions.
Endorsements are mostly ineffective. Rallies and other appearances for the sake of fundraising are better. But both are trumped by the quality of the campaign. Money and great endorsements cannot make a bad campaign or a bad candidate win. Perdue was a horrible candidate throughout, hitting the wrong notes at the wrong times and often coming across as whiny rather than winning.
As for Hice, did he even run a campaign? I like him as a Congressman, but he wasn't out there hammering Raffensperger nearly as hard as he should have been. He had a prime opportunity to make national news and drive massive fundraising if he had gone after Raffensperger's demonstrable corruption. Instead, he ran the mediocre campaign that's fine for a congressional district but not nearly enough for a statewide election.
The real narrative here isn't just Trump. The bigger narrative that the Republican Establishment and their cronies in corporate media will play on is the combination of "MAGA Republicans" and voter fraud losing weight in the eyes of primary voters. This may or may not be true; we tend to see things in light of what's present in the America First base but often miss what Average Joe Republican is thinking. Have they been so gaslighted by Fox News and the like to the point they think voter fraud didn't happen and MAGA is dead and gone?
I don't know the answer to that question, but it really isn't important to know because our path forward remains the same. The America First movement must get louder in spite of corporate media propaganda. Voter fraud must remain an issue until culprits are held responsible. Most importantly, RINOs must be exposed. We need to work harder at that now more than ever. America hangs in the balance and continued control by the Uniparty is untenable.
One final note about Trump's influence in the party. As improbable as it was to imagine just a year ago, there are plenty of rumblings about active people within the America First movement having second thoughts about him. He hasn't helped himself by continuing to this day to promote the jabs. I'm not sure where the disconnect is or why he feels it's beneficial to mention them at most events, but it's turning MAGA people away. Then, there's the poor endorsements of people like Dr. Mehmet Oz that have people scratching their heads. Even the Republican Establishment is rallying behind Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania over fellow globalist David McCormick. That's not a good look for Trump.
Arguably the most concerning miss on his endorsements on Tuesday is the one nobody's discussing. Mo Brooks has done much better since LOSING Trump's endorsement. When Trump pulled his endorsement two months ago, Brooks was in a distant third place with under 17% in the polls. He finished yesterday by forcing a runoff and getting 29.1%.
Perdue and Hice were expected to lose, but just two weeks ago so was Brooks. He surged in spite of Trump. That doesn't mean he got a bump from Trump pulling his endorsement. It just reinforces what I've said all along: Endorsements don't mean much.
We need to fight harder to get America First candidates across the finish line. We can't rely on Trump or Ron DeSantis or Tucker Carlson to do that for us. We need to do it ourselves.
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With Tuesday Primary Losses, Has Trump Lost His Mojo?