OK I am no fan of Chuck Todd, but at times he can put it bluntly. Todd was rattling off the names of Trump selected candidates who were “underperforming” tonight and he says: "This is turning into a Disaster for Donald Trump."
Here in Washington Tiffany Smiley lost her race for the Senate with Patty Murray getting 58% of the vote. Local pundits predicted a close race, but I thought the GOP was pumping money into the Smiley campaign because the GOP has more dark money than they knew what to do with. Also Matt Larkin is losing to incumbent Democrat Dr. Kim Schrier in a swing district where the Republicans also spent heavily.
I’ve saved the best for last, an upset in the making.
In Washington's 3rd District it looks like Marie Gluesenkamp Perez can flip the Republican held seat. She leads Joe Kent, 52.62% to his 46.8%.
Liz Cheney tried to warn Republicans that this would happen. Did they listen?
Of course not!
UPDATE:
Thanks to a new piece in the WaPo I see that Kevin McCarthy tried to take down Joe Kent back in the Republican Primary.
Allies spent millions in a sometimes secretive effort to weed out candidates who could cause the House leader trouble or jeopardize GOP victories in November
By Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey, Isaac Arnsdorf and Marianna Sotomayor
Much of the spending in Republican primaries by McCarthy’s political operation has been done out in the open by the House GOP’s largest super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, for which McCarthy has helped raise $165 million this cycle.
CLF used a different McCarthy-aligned group this summer to intervene on behalf of Herrera Beutler, who earned Trump’s ire by voting for his impeachment in 2021. Kent, her Trump-endorsed challenger, opposed McCarthy as speaker, denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election and denounced the legal treatment of Jan. 6 rioters as “banana republic stuff.”
But in the weeks before the Aug. 2 primary, two groups, WFW Action Fund and a previously unknown group called Conservatives for a Stronger America, began attacking Kent as a closeted leftist, with television ads misleadingly suggesting he wanted to “defund the police” or showing old photos of the former Army Special Forces officer sporting long hair alongside false claims that he supported Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
After Kent defeated Herrera Beutler in the primary, both PACs opposing him publicly reported contributions that tied their efforts to McCarthy’s allies. WFW Action Fund received transfers of nearly $1 million from CLF in the months before the ads.
At the time I was aware of these ads that were bizarrely attacking Joe Kent from the right, and I thought something fishy was going on, and I was trying to guess who was behind them. Now it turns out it was Kevin McCarthy, who was actively working to undermine Donald Trump’s chosen candidates, including Madison Cawthorn.
Kevin McCarthy and House Republican Leaders
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