As we saw earlier today, the Republican Governors Association was savvy enough to boot the MyPillow nutcase out of it's annual meeting this week. But they were happy to let former Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada stay and schmooze. Alex Isenstadt reported today that "Heller is preparing to run for governor in 2022, giving Republicans a high-profile entrant into one of the key contests of the midterm elections." If he wins, wrote Isenstadt, "It would represent a dramatic comeback for Heller, who lost reelection in 2018 as part of a nationwide repudiation" of Señor Trumpanzee. It is also part of the ever-growing annals from the Republican civil war.
The 61-year-old Heller would face a primary fight against several Republicans including Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, a former Democrat who recently switched parties.
Heller’s hot-and-cold relationship with Trump would likely become an issue in the campaign, particularly in a Republican primary where rivals could accuse him of being insufficiently supportive of the former president. Heller was critical of Trump throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, and after the October 2016 release of a tape in which Trump was heard speaking in sexually graphic terms about women, the senator was quoted as saying he was “100 percent against [Democratic nominee Hillary] Clinton, 99 percent against Trump.”
The tension bled over into the opening months of the Trump administration, when Heller-- who was preparing to run for reelection the following year-- opposed a Trump-backed Obamacare repeal bill. A Trump-allied political organization then retaliated by launching an advertising campaign savaging the senator.
...Trump told reporters that Heller’s defeat came about because Heller had been “extraordinarily hostile” to him during the 2016 campaign and had alienated his supporters. The senator fired back by saying that Trump had called him right before the election and predicted to him that he’d win.
This comes just as new polling from Quinnipiac shows that self-identified Republican voters want their candidates to be Trumpified. Believe it or not, 85% of these assholes say they want candidates for Congress and all other offices to agree with Trump. Trumpified candidates are likely to win Republican primaries and lose general elections. 66% of Republicans say they want Trump to run again in 2024. But 66% of all Americans-- including Republicans-- say they do not want to see Trump run again.
The pollsters asked people how much responsibility Trump as for the takeover of the Capitol:
A lot- 39%
Some- 12%
A little- 12%
None- 28%
Not sure- 9%
They were also asked if they think it is right for Trump supporters to be prosecuted over their participation in the takeover of the Capitol building. 59% said yes, 25% said no and 16% aren't sure.
Looking at this polling may make you wonder who the hell all these Trump supporters are and what's in their minds. Interestingly, the same polling shows that although 76% of Biden voters are fully vaccinated (and another 10% have their first shot with 7% planning to get one), among Trump voters 26% say they will never be vaccinated (as opposed to just 2% of Biden voters). 60% of Trump voters are fully or partially vaccinated. One interpretation of these numbers is that urban areas are going to have herd immunity early this summer while small towns and rural areas, where most of the Trumpists live, may never get there.