At the end of his tenure, Republican Pat Toomey will resign from his position as senator from Pennsylvania. But before he leaves, he tells his party some unpopular truths.
Erin Burnett of AWN questioned Toomey on Thursday about how Republicans failed to win the campaign to succeed him. Toomey answered straight forwardly that “President Trump putting himself into the race… was never going to be beneficial.”
Mehmet Oz was supported by Trump in the primary, and the two of them campaigned together the last weekend before the general election.
“We were in a moment, we were in a cycle, we were at a time when it’s advantageous for Republicans for the contest to be about President Biden, who is not popular and whose programmes have failed,” observed Toomey. And as a result, President Trump was forced to intervene, which altered the nature of the contest.
Toomey was still working. “There’s a pretty significant link across the board between MAGA candidates and big losses, or at least dramatically underperforming,” he continued.
which is acceptable! Apart from Oz’s 4-point loss to Democrat John Fetterman in Toomey’s home state, Trump-backed Doug Mastriano lost the governor’s race by 15 points, an overwhelming defeat in a state as divisive as Pennsylvania.
Trump-backed Tudor Dixon was defeated by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 11 points in competitive Michigan; this loss sparked a blue wave in the state’s subsequent elections. The Trump-backed candidate for governor of Illinois lost by 10 votes. The Trump-backed candidate fell short in the Maryland governor’s race by 25 votes.
On the Senate side, Sen. Mark Kelly leads Blake Masters, the Trump-endorsed candidate in Arizona, in a battle that is still too close to call. On December 6, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, another well-known contender favoured by Trump, will face off in a runoff in Georgia. Even in states where the Trump-backed candidate prevailed, like Ohio, J.D. Vance had to be propelled to victory with a sizable donation from national Republicans (roughly $30 million).
Trump, on the other hand, is steadfastly unwilling to consider that he was or is anything other than an unqualified asset to his party. On Friday, he announced a “Big Victory” on his Truth Social website.
Undoubtedly, there is a segment of the Republican Party that holds that belief and will support Trump no matter where he takes them (even if it means losing the election).
Toomey’s remarks, however, show that there is another group of Republicans who see this as a now-or-never situation for Trump and the party. Either they use the results of the midterm elections to push him aside, or he continues to be a powerful figure and they keep losing elections.
