The current primaries confirm that Donald Trump has a firm grip on his party, but not as totally as that of Trumpism.
Tuesday was primary election day in North Carolina, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The Trump-backed candidatures have had mixed results, but the primaries confirm that the populist Trump right and adherence to the ex-president’s “big lie” about the 2020 election dominate the Republican Party.
Trump takes defeats
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump fumes at the poor performance of his most prominent favorites.
Madison Cawthorn, the young North Carolina congressman who supported Trump even as he angered almost all of his fellow congressmen by garnering scandal, was defeated by an obscure local politician.
In Idaho, Trump’s protégé Janice McGeachin, a strident far-right ideologist, was slammed by Gov. Brad Little, an already fairly right-wing Republican.
Featured Pennsylvania
In this key state, which he narrowly lost in 2020, Trump relied heavily on two candidates. In the Republican nomination for governor, his favorite Doug Mastriano won hands down. Mastriano, marching in a crowd of insurgents on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, vowed to sway the 2024 election process in Trump’s favour.
Trump has bet even more on Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, a doctor famous for his appearances on television and in gossip magazines. There should be a recount, but Oz appears to have narrowly defeated David McCormick, who is close to the Republican establishment.
The strong third-place finish from Kathy Barnette, an ultra-conservative African American, more Trumpist than Trump, muddied the waters.
Barnette’s authenticity almost overwhelmed Doctor Oz, whom Trump admires for his media exploits but many Pennsylvaniars believe is a fraud whose conservative beliefs sound misguided.
For this Senate seat, Democrats overwhelmingly chose John Fetterman, a charismatic six-foot-tall giant whose direct and nonconformist style has everything to please the disappointed Democrats who voted for Trump in 2016. A race will follow.
Other turbulence in sight
Next Tuesday, the action will shift to Georgia, where Donald Trump is seeking to unseat Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who have committed the irremediable sin of refusing to rig the November 2020 election results in his favor.
Polls predict Kemp and Raffensperger will inflict two more defeats on Trump, who could take solace if his Senate favorite, ex-footballer Herschel Walker, gets the Democratic ticket despite a host of personal scandals and controversial statements.
Republicans are favored to retake the two congressional majorities in November. They are burdened by the Trumpist radicalization of the party and by the revelations of the investigation into the events of January 6, 2021 and the allegations against Donald Trump.
But that probably won’t be enough for the Democrats to stay in Congress unless all the wounds in the US economy suddenly heal.
