Democrats Condemn MAGA Republicans While Boosting Their Campaigns

PACs and Democratic organizations spend money on fringe GOP primary candidates in an attempt to set up favorable matchups in this year’s midterms.

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Ahead of this month’s jungle primary in California’s 22nd Congressional District, Republican candidate Chris Mathys scored a television shoutout from an unanticipated spender: the Nancy Pelosi-aligned House Majority PAC. 

The TV ad lambasted incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao for his vote to impeach former President Donald Trump last year and called Mathys—a far-right candidate who has previously said Trump would still be president had the 2020 votes been “properly counted”—“a true conservative” who is “100 percent pro-Trump and proud.”

Despite the House Majority PAC’s best efforts to boost Mathys’ candidacy, Valadao managed to secure a second-place runoff spot with 26.3 percent of the vote behind Democratic candidate Rudy Salas, who came in first with 44.1 percent. Mathys finished third with 22.4 percent.

Democrats have deployed similar tactics before. During her 2012 reelection campaign, former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri famously engineered the GOP primary in her favor by propping up ultra-conservative Republican candidate Todd Akin—the candidate she felt she was best-positioned to beat in the general election. “I told my team we needed to put Akin’s uber-conservative bona fides in an ad—and then, using reverse psychology, tell voters not to vote for him,” she recalled years later in an op-ed. The tactic was wildly successful. In what was initially expected to be a competitive general election race, McCaskill sailed to victory with a 16-point margin of victory.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    The Democrats who pulled this move ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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    Young Riprock

    In 2022, this is monkey paw politics.

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    Bill B

    My daddy was a Southern Baptist minister in South Texas. I can believe most anything… but oddly enough not that.

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    rlritt

    I think that's stretching it.

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  5. Dicklowery

    I propose that Trumpizoidial candidates are not referred to as “conservative”. Perhaps they should be referred to as “Rightwing”.

    I think that F.A. Hayak’s essay “Why I am not a conservative” is applicable. As discussed, in this newsletter by several writers, Hayak was generally not referring to conservative tendencies in the Anglo- American tradition, but beliefs more in the European Continental sense. Trumpism- if there is such a definable thing - seems to often seek more stature for the executive leader, prefer central control (in some areas), vague mercantilism, and displays a strong desire to show preference for selected groups over other groups. This is typically not the thinking of E. Burke, A. Smith or the US founders, but rather “continental conservatives” who come from a more centralized government tradition. Hence, Hayak’s opposition to the “conservative” moniker.

    Reserve “conservative” for the smaller government and constitutional group and use Rightwing for the vapid smorgasbord of Trumpy nonsense peddlers.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Bretta Hixson

    Something to bear in mind next time I am told I have a moral obligation to join the progressive coalition in order to Save Democracy. . .

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      rlritt

      Why? Do you think supporting an unelectable adversary is anti democratic.

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    Xaveria

    Goddamn it. This is the Pied Piper thing all over again. For those of you who do not know, one of the hacked DNC emails laid out three pillars of Hillary's campaign. One of those pillars was "use our contacts in the media to promote fringe candidates like Marco Rubio and Donald Trump in the Republican primaries."

    When asked whether or not that email was real, representatives of her campaign answered, "these emails were obtained illegally." Which was entirely true. It was also almost certainly true that those emails were obtained and released by Russia. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Hillary Clinton is responsible for giving us Donald Trump. This sort of cynical partisan maneuvering is almost the definition of putting personal ambition over the good of the country.

    Where have the statespeople gone?

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  8. Egal.Fabrice

    This is a terrible idea. The sort that ends in calamity and future historians wondering "how could these morons believe it was a good idea?" in bewilderment.

    I am reminded of the genius who said "what's the downside in humoring Trump?" in Decembrer 2020. I can't tell what exactly will go wrong, but don't be surprised when it does.

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      rlritt

      It's terrible in the sense that there may be a lot of voters who always vote for candidate with an "R" after his name. But if there are a lot of suburban swing voters, an extreme candidate would turn them off.

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    Bill B

    These are Democrats! They lost a national election to Donald freakin' Trump! No one should expect master level chess moves.

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      rlritt

      But, his base of supporters, literally think he is annointed by God. I read an article about how religeous Republicans don't care what he's done,he is sent by God. Can you believe it?

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    LisaE

    Maybe this is what the GOP needs - to get stuck with Trumpy candidates that go on to lose winnable races. Oh, for one of the two parties to NOT be crazy. What a wonderful world that would be.

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