Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa may have made a fatal miscalculation when he went all in for Donald Trump. During the primary, Issa was a Rubio guy who on CNN compared Trump to failed GOP Senate candidate Todd Aiken—the infamous 2012 "legitimate rape" Missourian. Ryan Lizza writes:
Issa said, “He was the wrong candidate, and it wasn’t until later that they realized that somebody who wasn’t thinking about what they said, who was saying things that were off the wall, brought down the Party.” He went on, “Donald Trump could be a national Todd Akin if our party doesn’t coalesce behind a single candidate.”
But in May, after Rubio left the race, Issa transferred his allegiance to Trump with an almost Chris Christie-like enthusiasm. At a May 27th Trump rally in San Diego, Issa compared Trump to Ronald Reagan. A few weeks earlier, he had published an op-ed in The Hill chastising fellow-Republicans for not backing Trump. The piece was headlined “Memo to Bushes, Other G.O.P. Holdouts: Get on the Trump Train.”
Issa was betting on a Trump bump that never came. Even though he finished first in the primary with 51 percent of the vote, he's now in a pitched battle with Daily Kos endorsee Marine Col. Doug Applegate. Applegate came in second in that primary, just six points behind Issa (both parties run in California primaries and the top two candidates move on to the general election) despite the fact that Issa outspent him by a fifteen-to-one margin.
Issa's big problem is the rapidly shifting demographics of his San Diego-area district, which now includes many more of the very voters who despise Trump: millennials and Latinos. Latino voters make up nearly 30 percent of the district and 17 percent of its eligible vote share. And Issa's weak performance in the primary—he's never run lower than 58 percent in a general—was probably fueled in part by millennial turnout for Bernie Sanders.
Applegate's internal polls suggest he could catch Issa, who has just a 45-42 lead. But as the wealthiest member of Congress, Issa also has deep pockets to unload on this race.
Please give Applegate a fighting chance by donating $6 to his effort give Issa the boot in November.