Trump can’t go away at this point: Former Cruz speechwriter warns the ‘beast has become self-operational’
Republicans are stuck with the MAGA base Donald Trump created, which no longer needs the former president to dominate the GOP, a former top conservative strategist explained on Tuesday.
"Donald Trump cost Republicans the House in 2018, the Senate in 2020 and is poised now to help Democrats hang on to both chambers in 2022," S.V. Dáte reported for HuffPost. "While the former president successfully made a willingness to spread his lies about a “stolen” election a litmus test for getting through the GOP primaries, that precise quality in many cases is a detriment in the November general election — an election Republicans had assumed for months would give them control of at least the House and possibly also the Senate."
Trump successfully pushed first-time GOP candidates to win U.S. Senate nominations, recruiting Hershell Walker in Georgia, along with backing Blake Masters in Arizona, Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, and J.D. Vance in Ohio.
"Instead, exactly seven weeks before election night, even recapturing the House is no longer a certainty, thanks to those weak general election candidates, Trump’s insistence on putting himself in the spotlight, and a fundraising operation that has locked away more than $100 million in small-dollar GOP donations into what is effectively his personal slush fund and will not be used in campaigns this fall," HuffPost reported.
The GOP is not doing as well as expected in the midterms.
With seven weeks before election day, Michigan State political scientist Matt Grossmann wrote there was "no sign turnout or vote choice are trending toward the presidential out-party as they often do. If the polling is not systematically biased toward Democrats in a big way, Democrats will have a much better than normal midterm."
Amanda Carpenter, a former speechwriter for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), told HuffPost the GOP is stuck with the dilemma.
"Even if Trump had gone away, these problems wouldn’t have ceased to exist,” Carpenter said. “The beast is self-operational, at this point ... The incentives that steer the candidates toward crazy are still there.”
READ: Inside the night Fox News was in 'turmoil'
Read the full report.