Donald Trump’s endorsement win-loss record in Tuesday’s primaries was not the best, something he’s doubtless fuming about while looking for ways to pretend it was unblemished. But Trump’s lies about the 2020 election have taken over the Republican Party, so in many races his endorsed candidates’ chief competitors also embrace the claim that the election was stolen. The Big Lie can win when Trump’s personal choice loses.
In Pennsylvania, Trump’s pick for governor did prevail in the Republican primary. State Sen. Doug Mastriano won that primary easily. Mastriano has admitted he was in the area of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but insisted that he obeyed police and didn’t cross any lines. Video footage says that's a lie, showing Mastriano walking past police barricades that other members of the mob are actively shoving out of the way. Mastriano has also campaigned on decertifying the 2020 election, pushed for an Arizona-style audit of Pennsylvania’s ballots, and spread lies like the claim that there were more votes counted in the state in 2020 than there are registered voters.
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Trump’s pick in the Pennsylvania Senate race is still hanging in the balance. Dr. Mehmet Oz is in a tight race with former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick. But Trump doesn’t need to worry—even if McCormick pulls it out, Pennsylvania will have a Republican Senate nominee who refuses to admit that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and spent his primary campaign seeking to link himself to Trump.
Washington state Sen. Emily Randall and RuralOrganizing.org's Matt Hildreth talk about what they're seeing and hearing while knocking on doors this week on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast
In North Carolina, Trump’s pick did prevail in the Republican Senate primary. Rep. Ted Budd voted against certifying the 2020 election, and at one point texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with a conspiracy theory about Dominion Voting Systems and George Soros. He continues to refuse to say that Biden is president.
Also in North Carolina, Bo Hines, sort of a Madison Cawthorn 2.0 character, won his House primary. In April, Hines tweeted, “I agree with President Donald J. Trump: If you think the 2020 election was fair, then you’re a fool.”
Hines, an athletic and photogenic man in his 20s who campaigned by railing against both “radical, Marxist leftists” and “cowardly, RINO Republicans” won his primary. But Cawthorn, who was also endorsed by Trump, did lose his after his claims about being invited to cocaine orgies by fellow members of Congress and his erratic behavior turned much of the North Carolina Republican establishment against him.
Trump has plenty more election liars lined up in upcoming primaries—whether he’s endorsed them or not, like Kari Lake running for governor in Arizona and Rebecca Kleefisch running for governor in Wisconsin. His endorsement may not be a sure winner in Republican primaries, but his sore loserdom and eagerness to subvert democracy have taken over the party.
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