GOP State-Level Dysfunction Could Cost Trump The Nov. Election
On Thursday, Maria Salazar, a silly goose who Republican voters elected to Congress from Miami and who was then appointed to chair the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, decided to show what she claims Cuban dictatorship is by shutting up Barbara Lee and having her removed from the hearing room. Salazar is a notoriously empty-headed idiot and literally seemed unaware that Fidel Castro died in 2016, accusing Lee of “unequivocal support of Fidel Castro [and spreading] communist propaganda.” What Lee was trying to get across is that the U.S. and Cuba should have diplomatic relations, causing Salazar to short circuit. You can contribute to Barbara Lee’s Senate campaign here.
Salazar, whose district has a D+1 partisan lean, may feel tense and on the verge of short circuiting all the time, but she’s hardly the only Republican in that state-of-mind. If the abortion protection constitutional amendment makes it onto the ballot in November, she’s the most likely Florida Republican to lose her seat. Republicans in general, though, have a lot more to be worried about— from MAGA Mike’s incredible shrinking (and dysfunctional) majority to turmoil and Trump-grade chaos in state parties. There is well-founded concern that mounting dysfunction in a set of state Republican parties could imperil the GOP’s chances in 2024, going so far as to leave the eventual Republican presidential nominee hamstrung on party infrastructure in key battleground states, particularly in Florida and Michigan, where state party chairs have been ousted. State parties in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, all battleground states, are also messed up.
“I think it’s going to be a problem,” said Oscar Brock, a member of the Republican National Committee from Tennessee. “Any time that you have a state party that’s dysfunctional and suffering from financial problems— which comes with dysfunction— you’re going to have a hard time having a unified campaign in the fall to elect Republicans.”
The dysfunction has spurred some local and national Republican officials to consider ways around having to work closely with state parties. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, after feuding with state loyalists allied with former President Donald Trump, set up his own organization to circumvent the party’s fundraising efforts. In states such as Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, Republicans have depended more on national outside groups like Americans for Prosperity or Turning Point USA to fulfill some of the roles that previously made state parties essential. And in some cases, state parties have been severely damaged by an organized effort called “precinct strategy” to insert fringe activists and election deniers into local party leadership positions.
…In Nevada, the chair and vice chair were part of a set of six Republican officials who were indicted for their involvement in a fake elector scheme in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans are also worried that, as of early January, the Clark County School District had not yet approved requests for 50 caucusing locations requested by the Clark County Republican Party. The concern is that with less than a month to go before voters caucus in Nevada, a large portion of Republican voters don’t or won’t have a place to go if the requests aren’t approved in the state’s biggest county, which is home to Las Vegas.
And in neighboring Arizona, chairman Jeff DeWit had found himself at odds with Republicans over a proposal to hold that state’s presidential primary contest on one day in 2024. DeWit and the state party ultimately rejected that proposal, fueling tensions between Trump-aligned Republicans in Maricopa County advocating for the changes and DeWit and the other Republicans opposed to it. DeWit has also pleaded with the Republican National Committee for financial help to try and burnish the party’s coffers, according to an Arizona Republican with knowledge of those discussions. DeWit has met with RNC chair Ronna McDaniel personally and DeWit’s team sent over budgets to explain what they needed help with, the Arizona Republican said.
In October, the party said it raised over $340,000 in the third quarter of 2023, a 348% increase over the last analogous quarter in 2019.
An Arizona Republican connected to the state party brushed off the prospect that any financial or internal strife has kneecapped the state GOP’s ability to do its job.
“The party should be doing really two things: managing communications and funding legal [sic] to defend because the party can enter any lawsuit and get in the middle of anything,” the Republican said.
In Georgia, Kemp has had to create some distance between him and the state Republican Party. The governor rarely interacts with the state party, according to three Republicans with knowledge of that relationship. A Georgia Republican operative with knowledge of Kemp’s moves said, “We keep our interaction to a minimum.”
The division between Kemp and more-MAGA friendly Republicans in the state party is rooted in their feelings toward Trump; Kemp has been one of the few outspoken governors willing to spar with the former president. Kemp has also feuded with state party officials over covering legal bills for the set of alternate 2020 electors who erroneously argued that Trump actually won the 2020 election.
…The fears extend beyond the presidential level. State parties play a key role in activating voters, organizing door knocking efforts and corralling donors. That’s starting to look like a luxury, argued Henry Barbour, a longtime member of the Republican National Committee from Mississippi.
“The party, being the state party or the national party, has a fundamental job to help candidates be position for victory and to do the ground game and the data and so much of the infrastructure work of campaigns,” said Barbour. “So when you have a party that’s failing, it’s like the public utility down the street doesn’t work anymore. How do you get your electricity or your water? … The party really plays that fundamental role in elections for its candidates.”
Barbour warned that the stakes are already high for the party and the chaos could prove costly by the time voters go to the ballot box in November.
“This is a difficult time for the party and arguably in one of those election years that really could be one of the most important in the last 20 years that people always talk about,” Barbour said.
For candidates in these states, they now have to figure out a way to recalibrate with an absence of a healthy state GOP. In the past, Barbour stressed, candidates could leave a fair share of the phone calls and door knocking to the state parties. In these states that’s not currently the case.
“The party has a real job to do and its one job is to win elections. That’s its only job -and we have failed just looking at the last few cycles. It could certainly happen again but it doesn’t have to. If we could make this election about Joe Biden we’re going to be in pretty good shape,” Barbour said.