Former President Donald Trump is seeing defeats from prominent candidates he had endorsed in Idaho, Nebraska, North Carolina and, most recently, Georgia.
Driving the news: Sen. David Perdue, Trump’s bid in Georgia, was defeated by Gov. Brian Kemp, one of Trump’s enemies, per Politico. Kemp won by a huge margin, as did Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In 2020, Kemp refused Trump’s requests to overturn the election he lost in Georgia, moving him to the foe list.
- But this doesn’t mean candidates promoting the former president’s falsehoods aren’t winning primary races across the country for governor, attorney general and secretary of state — Trump’s pick for governor in Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, won the primary, while the Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, is heading into a recount.
What experts said: “What we’re seeing right now is unprecedented,” Joanna Lydgate, co-founder and CEO of States United Action, a bipartisan group advancing fair and secure elections, told CNN.
- “To see candidates running on a platform of lies and conspiracy theories about our elections as a campaign position, to see a former president getting involved in endorsing in down-ballot races at the primary level, and certainly to see this kind of systemic attacks on our elections, this spreading of disinformation about our elections — we’ve never seen anything like this before as a country.”
State of play: According to Politico, well-known Republicans aren’t shying away from defying Trump any more. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul showed their support for Rep. Mo Brooks for Alabama’s GOP Senate nomination, while Chris Sununu openly mocked Trump at a Washington dinner.
What they’re saying: “Donald Trump is truly the leader of the party right now, but there are many people, particularly those in elected office, who also stake a claim to the ‘America First’ agenda,” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former White House counselor, said Tuesday, per The Washington Post.
In another interview, she said that Trump would likely run in 2024. “Because he thinks there’s unfinished business,” Conway said, per The Hill.