The herd-mentality pundits and media have been yelling doom and gloom for the Democrats in the midterms all year. I don't know how you can look into the 2022 Georgia elections without dealing with the Democratic Party local elections sweep 4 days ago... but that's exactly what Max Greenwood and Hanna Trudo just did this morning for Hill readers. "Georgia is emerging as the most critical battleground of the 2022 midterm elections," they wrote OK, whatever. With Stacey Abram's entrance into the governor’s race on Wednesday, Democrats landed one of their top recruits, one they hope will also lift up Sen. Raphael Warnock, whose seat is crucial to the party’s efforts to hold their Senate majority. But Democrats are facing strong headwinds next year: the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging, inflation is rising and President Biden's approval rating is well underwater. What’s more, the political coalition that helped power Democratic victories in Georgia last year appears fragile, and a loss in the governor’s race or Senate race-- or both-- would be seen as a titanic blow to the party."
Really? On Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging, inflation was rising and Biden's approval rating was well underwater, but Georgia Democrats swept the local races anyway. Democrats ousted Republican mayors and city council members all over the state and beat back Republican challengers who the media had already predicted would win... because of the raging pandemic, rising inflation, Biden's approval, a shifting mood, etc.
For whatever reason, Greenwood and Trudo decided not to mention Tuesday's electoral victories in Georgia but did assert that "people of color, women and suburbanites" were less inclined to vote for Abrams and Warnock than in the past. That's what passes for "journalism" at The Hill.
Democrats have been doing better and better in Georgia in the last few years, also unmentioned by The Hill. Last time these politicians faced Georgia voters:
2021 Warnock- 2,289,113 (51.0%)- WON
2021 Ossoff- 2,269,738 (50.6%)- WON
2020 Biden- 2,473,633 (49.47%)- WON
2018 Abrams- 1,923,685 (48.8%)- "LOST"
2016 Clinton- 1,877,963 (45.29%)- LOST
This morning, Politico reporter Natalie Allison looked at problems the GOP is having with the Senate midterms, using Alabama as the example. The GOP richly deserves all the predictable misery Señor Trumpanzee continues to inflict on them.
Trump, convinced that the definition of RINO is anyone who doesn't follow his orders to a t, has already labelled retiring Alabama Senator Richard Shelby a RINO. Shelby endorsed his former chief of staff, Katie Britt, for the seat he's giving up. Trump has endorsed hard core insurrectionist and overt fascist Mo Brooks. Although they're too scared of Trump to endorse Britt 5 Republican senators have contributed to her campaign-- Mike Crapo (ID), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Joni Ernst (IA), Jim Inhofe (OK) and Deb Fischer (NE). All 5 are significantly more conservative than Trump but all 5 can expect to be labelled RINO if Trump finds out.
Allison wrote that Trump allies Tommy Tuberville and Lindsey Graham attended a Wednesday night D.C. fundraiser for Britt, where the invitation announced that Graham was the evening's "special guest." Graham told Allison that he likes Katie a lot. "In a party trying to grow demographically and pull more women in the party, that'd be a good thing. The people of Alabama will figure that out."
The financial support for Britt, the former president of the Business Council of Alabama, comes in spite of Trump’s disparaging comments about her.
“I see that the RINO Senator from Alabama, close friend of Old Crow Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, is pushing hard to have his ‘assistant’ fight the great Mo Brooks for his Senate seat,” Trump said in a July statement. “She is not in any way qualified and is certainly not what our Country needs or not what Alabama wants.”
But Brooks has faltered since he entered the race, and a narrative has spread that Trump is disappointed in the Alabama congressman’s performance.
Neither Graham nor Tuberville have officially endorsed Britt, though their appearances at the crowded event Wednesday-- where Tuberville was photographed with his arm around Britt-- come as recent polling and fundraising numbers have cemented Britt as a leading candidate.
Britt has outraised Brooks by more than 2-to-1, bringing in $3.7 million to date, compared to his $1.7 million. Her campaign’s expenditures total less than half of Brooks’, even as Brooks has held off on staffing up for the race in an apparent cost-saving measure.
...Brooks’ campaign chair Stan McDonald pushed back on the notion of a flailing campaign, saying in a statement that Britt is “trying to win in the DC Insider Primary because she is an insider.”
“Mo Brooks’ base is the Alabama conservative grassroots who decide our elections,” McDonald said. “He’s got their support, and he’s got President Trump’s support because they know he’s the conservative leader Alabama needs.”
This week, Trump persuaded wealthy real estate agent, multimillion dollar Trump campaign donor and his former ambassador to Slovenia, Lynda Blanchard, to withdraw from the Senate race-- making Brooks the one fascist in the race-- and run for governor against Kay Ivey, a very conservative Republican who Trump imagined slighted him once (because he's a narcissistic moron)
I don't know if it will hurt Brooks in Alabama, but his role in the insurrection is going to be front and center soon, as another fascist coup plotter, Ali Alexander, testifies against him. The Business Insider reported last weekend that Alexander, the Stop The Steal rally organizer, will comply with his subpoena to testify. Eddie Burkhalter of the Alabama Political Reporter wrote that "Days prior to the riot Alexander posted a video in which he named Congressman Mo Brooks and Arizona U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs as helping him plan the Jan. 6 rally aimed at pressuring Congress as members counted electoral votes. 'So I want to let you guys know how we’re responding, because I was the person who came up with the January 6th idea, with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks and then-Congressman Andy Biggs,' Alexander said in the live stream video, which was archived by Jason Paladino, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight. 'We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress, while they were voting, so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside,' he said."
The most recent polling shows Britt and Brooks neck and neck but with Britt always a point or two ahead. Other fascists backing Brooks include Michael Flynn, Stephen Miller, Marjorie Traitor Greene, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Club for Growth. More mainstream conservative organizations like the Alabama Conservative Fund, the Alabama Farmers Federation and the Alabama Retail Association, have endorsed Britt.
Club for Growth just released this negative ad on behalf of Trump and Brooks: