Donald Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant fearmongering failed some of his closest allies in numerous key races Tuesday, including the stunning defeat of professional vote suppressor Kris Kobach, who lost the Kansas gubernatorial race to Democrat Laura Kelly. Kobach, who vice-chaired Trump’s sham of a voter fraud commission, “has a long history of vilifying immigrants and pushing repressive policies,” said immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry. “He has inflicted pain on millions. It finally caught up with him.”
Kobach wasn’t alone. In Pennsylvania, Lou Barletta lost the state’s U.S. Senate seat by double digits. The congressman, Sharry continued, “is about as Trumpy a candidate as there is. As mayor of Hazleton, he became a nativist firebrand. As a member of Congress, he has been an anti-immigrant stalwart,” and as a Senate candidate, he received donations from an extremist group with ties to a notorious white nationalist. Pennsylvania said “no gracias” and re-elected Democrat Bob Casey.
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner also hitched his wagon to hate, and in the final days of the election tried to capitalize on Trump’s fearmongering over asylum seekers and vulnerable families by releasing an ad titled “Caravan.” It spectacularly backfired, with a survey from The Immigration Hub and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) finding that 62 percent of moderate suburban female voters disapproved of the ad.
Wagner, along with Virginia candidates Barbara Comstock, Dave Brat and Corey Stewart, could have learned a thing or two from Ed Gillespie’s failed 2017 campaign in the commonwealth. Gilliespie was all-in on Trumpism in his bid for the gubernatorial seat, fearmongering about MS-13. The punditry, along with white nationalist Steve Bannon, said it would work for him. “I think the big lesson for Tuesday is that, in Gillespie’s case, Trumpism without Trump can show the way forward,” Bannon claimed. Gillespie lost by nine points, his ad having backfired and turned off suburban voters.
Despite reports that Speaker Paul Ryan wanted Trump to focus on the economy and not anti-immigrant fearmongering, The Immigration Hub reports a Ryan-affiliated SuperPAC and Republicans spent more than $100 million to run almost 300,000 anti-immigrant ads. “Results so far indicate that white women in the suburbs were turned off by these attacks,” helping secure important House victories for Democrats. Pollster Nick Gourvetich:
It also backfired for Comstock and Brat, running for House re-election, and for Stewart, running for U.S. Senate. “Comstock made MS-13 a centerpiece of her campaign,” America’s Voice notes, which voters again rejected Tuesday. Stewart also lost by double digits to Democrat Tim Kaine. Bannon had also previously claimed that “Corey Stewart is the reason Gillespie is going to win,” but Corey couldn’t even save his own white nationalist ass. Maybe punditry can also stop giving any serious thought to anything Bannon says, as well?
“Trump’s vision of America was on the ballot,” said The Immigration Hub’s Tyler Moran. “In Colorado and Pennsylvania, two critical battleground states, voters roundly rejected Trump’s divisive and xenophobic politics. Candidates who hitched their wagon to Trump lost decidedly. The new Democratic House majority can now use their oversight authority to hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable and bring votes on the Dream Act and relief for TPS holders to the House floor.”