Dem
52
Ties
1
GOP
47
Donald Trump's magic keeps working. He got Darline Graham (Nordone) the GOP Senate nomination. She is no doubt a nice person, having spent her life helping blind people get training so they could find a job. Still, her only qualifications for the Senate are that her brother used to be a senator and Donald Trump wanted her to get the nomination. Trump went all out for her, stumping in South Carolina for her, and even spending some of his hard-earned PAC money. It is not at all clear why he did this since all the other candidates were very Trumpy and she may actually be the least Trumpy of them all. We don't know. And he probably doesn't either.
But his active and intense campaigning for Graham has made all the other Republicans running for office in tough environments jealous. They want the Darline treatment as well. One Republican strategist who wanted to remain anonymous said: "The message coming out of this is that obviously the president's support is still super powerful. The president's operation still has the ability to move the needle in a lot of these states." Trump doesn't really like campaigning for other people. He likes to be the star of every show and every rally. Whether he has the will and energy to stump for endangered Republicans elsewhere remains to be seen.
Another GOP strategist wondered why Trump would expend precious time and energy in a state that is safely Republican (and MAGA Republican at that) when there are MAGA allies like Mike Collins in Georgia, Ken Paxton in Texas and Michael Whatley in North Carolina who are in trouble.
Actually, there are two excellent reasons that Trump should not help Collins, Paxton, Whatley and some of the others. But we very much doubt he understands them. First, South Carolina was a primary. In it, Republican voters were asked to choose one Republican over another. Democrats played no role in the primary. In South Carolina, Trump was talking only to Republicans and they listen to him. In general election races, that is not true.
Second, if Trump shows up in Georgia, Texas or North Carolina, that will energize both Republicans and Democrats. That didn't matter in South Carolina but it definitely will in close races. Given the poor environment for Republicans now, going to Georgia or North Carolina might actually fire up Democrats more than Republicans and a visit would be a net negative. Of course, no staff member will dare tell him: "Sir, if you go to Texas to campaign for Paxton, that will cause him to lose." We also find it odd that some Republicans are asking for the "Darline treatment." If they are in a deep-red state or district, they don't need help. If they swing, having Trump show up is likely to be counterproductive as the Democrat will probably hold a rally at the same time to denounce him and fire up the Democrats' base. (V)