Last month, Axios did a report on Democratic meddling in GOP primary races. There was quite a bit of that going on:
Democratic groups are buying ads touting some of the most extreme pro-Trump candidates in Republican primaries around the country — meddling in GOP contests to set up more favorable matchups in November. https://t.co/emdkE4LWr1
— Axios (@axios) June 14, 2022
Just as was the case during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, these Dems figured that their best strategy for winning was to promote the most out-there candidate running. In 2016, they did it to ensure that Hillary Clinton would win the general election in a landslide. That strategy backfired, of course, and Dems ended up with four years of President Donald Trump.
And now, because they’ve apparently learned absolutely nothing, they’re back at it, most recently in the Michigan GOP primary race:
Democrats are meddling in yet another GOP primary, with a new $425k DCCC ad buy boosting the far-right challenger to Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Rs who voted to impeach Trump https://t.co/vDz0DYOBbw
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 26, 2022
More from Axios:
A new TV ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee portrays Republican John Gibbs as the true pro-Trump conservative in his effort to unseat Republican Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) — aligning with Gibbs’ own campaign messaging.
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Trump endorsed Gibbs’ challenge after Meijer voted to impeach the former president over his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol siege.
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Meijer, a freshman, had been in Congress just days when he took that potentially career-ending vote.
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Now Democrats, who see Gibbs as the more beatable general election opponent, are fueling the Trump-backed effort to oust one of his few remaining GOP critics in next week’s primary.
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This all sounds very, very familiar.
DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney, asked about GOP primary meddling generally on MSNBC this morning: "I think you might see us do that, sure." pic.twitter.com/3oZ0xYsqj8
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 26, 2022
We’ve already seen them do it. And we’ll continue to see them doing it, because they don’t actually care about MAGA candidates “destroying Democracy,” despite all their screeching about it.
To his credit, GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger — who is, for all intents and purposes, a Democrat — actually called out the likes of the DCCC and DNC for their attempts to interfere in and influence Republican primary races:
.@AdamKinzinger on Dem grps backing GOP election deniers in hopes of easier general election races:
"I think it's disgusting.. don't come to me after having spent money supporting an election denier in a primary, and then come to me and say 'where are all the good Republicans?'" pic.twitter.com/SseetxLrO8
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 26, 2022
Generally speaking, there’s not much common ground to be had between conservatives and Adam Kinzinger. At least not anymore. Even anti-Trump and Trump-skeptical conservatives have largely grown tired of Kinzinger’s antics. But he deserves credit where it’s due, and it’s due here.
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) July 26, 2022
Exactly. https://t.co/irgRpfeeW3
— Joe Colangelo (@Itsjoeco) July 26, 2022
This is exactly right… https://t.co/KmGYu5x5Kc
— Jeff Sadosky (@JeffSadosky) July 26, 2022
Once again @AdamKinzinger is correct https://t.co/FEZJuJTJgm
— Marc T Grove (@MarcTGroveSr) July 26, 2022
Democrats would be wise to listen to him on this. Which is why they most likely won’t.
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