Analysis: Trump revenge tour stalls in GA but succeeds elsewhere
Why Trump's nationwide revenge tour sputtered in the Peach State
Ever since his 2020 defeat, former President Donald Trump has been on a personal mission to target those in his party who refused to side with his lies about the election.
Those efforts were largely unsuccessful here in Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp, a one-time Trump ally, angered many Trump supporters when he certified Joe Biden’s narrow victory. Despite that, he easily dispatched a Trump-backed challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and is narrowly ahead of Democratic archrival Stacey Abrams in most public polling.
And then there’s enemy number one: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The Republican elections chief, who faced immense pressure from Trump to overturn Biden’s win, was widely regarded as a dead man walking heading into his primary. But he managed to defeat U.S. Rep. Jody Hice without a runoff and has been outpolling his Democratic challenger by double-digits — thanks in no small part to significant support from Democratic voters.
But while Trump’s revenge tour stalled here in Georgia, it has been pretty successful in other states. Look no further than Tuesday night’s primary election results in Wyoming. Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a conservative Republican who has been the face of the January 6 hearings, was defeated in a landslide by a Trump-backed primary challenger.
And it’s not just Cheney: of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former President, Cheney is now the fourth one to lose a primary. Another four chose not to run for re-election this year.
Trump’s efforts may not have been successful here in Georgia, but they have been successful in other states that could decide the 2024 presidential election. In Arizona, Trump ally Kari Lake won the Republican primary for governor this month. A former newscaster, Lake has suggested that her Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, should be imprisoned for certifying the 2020 election.
In the race for Arizona Secretary of State, Trump-backed State Rep. Mark Finchem won the Republican primary for the office that oversees elections in the Grand Canyon state. Finchem, who has embraced QAnon conspiracy theories, attended the march to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 and is a member of the Oath Keepers militia group.
Pennsylvania Republicans also nominated a Stop the Steal candidate in the race for governor.
“In one of America’s most politically divided states, the GOP’s embrace of a candidate who opposes abortion rights with no exceptions, spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection risks alienating moderate party members. But some Republicans say they’re duty bound to get behind their party’s nominee.”
Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who went viral after claiming she witnessed election fraud in Detroit, is the Republican nominee for Michigan Secretary of State. Trump-backed candidates have also been nominated for Michigan governor and Attorney General.
So why has Trump been victorious in other states except for Georgia?
“It’s partly because Republicans here saw how damaging Trump’s focus on his own election grievances were to the Senate runoff candidates,” AJC political reporter Greg Bluestein told me this week, referring to the Democratic sweep in the January 2021 Senate contests.
He went on to say that many Republican incumbents have tried to avoid antagonizing Trump since the 2020 election, and he reminded me that they are all conservatives. “It’s hard to paint Brian Kemp as some squishy moderate,” he said. “But David Perdue sure tried.”
But he warned that it is impossible to predict what this could mean for Trump’s prospects in Georgia in 2024. “That’s an eon from now, and it matters who else lines up to oppose him.”
In short, there is no doubt that Trump is still a popular figure among Georgia Republican voters. However, many of them likely believe that his election lies are part of what cost them 2 Senate seats — and control of the U.S. Senate. And they worry that it might jeopardize their chances in future elections in a state that has become the center of the political universe in recent years.
But the former President is on a hot streak in several other swing states, putting several election deniers just one step away from determining how elections are administered ahead of 2024.
tRump and his followers are liars. Vote 💙