US Mid-term: How Democrats Cleverly Made Use of Trump, Abortion to Prevent Red Wave | Explained

There has been no ‘red wave’ as was being expected by many in the US mid-term polls. Speculation was high on what a Republican swipe in these elections would mean for a future America deeply divide on many issues – Ukraine, the economy, abortion and more.

But another point the whole race and campaigning brought forth was former US President Donald Trump’s vigour – and whether that will pave the path for another term for him. He ridiculed his potential primary rival – Ron DeSantis – and called him names. He spent a lot too – his super PAC, MAGA Inc., spent more than $16 million on television advertising in the final month in six states, about 9% of all Republican spending in the same races during that time, according to AdImpact, an ad tracking firm, the New York Times reported.

But it did not yield him the results he hoped for.

According to Politico, the most Trump-like candidates fared poorly in states where more traditionalist Republicans were on the ballot.

In Georgia, Herschel Walker was neck and neck with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Gov. Brian Kemp easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, whose opposition to overturning the 2020 election results infuriated Trump.

In New Hampshire, Republican Don Bolduc was defeated by Sen. Maggie Hassan in a non-competitive race, while Gov. Chris Sununu, who once called Trump “f*cking crazy,” easily won reelection.

Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida and a potential Trump rival, was re-elected by a 20-point margin. Trump won the state by slightly more than 3 percentage points in 2020.

So Has Trump Lost His ‘Charm’?

He is definitely weaker in the party than before.

To no avail, GOP leaders aggressively courted centrist governors such as Doug Ducey of Arizona, Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire to run for Senate, the New York Times reported. Trump ruled from Mar-a-Lago, demanding that candidates believe his lies about the 2020 election being rigged. Republican primary voters overwhelmingly supported Trump, prompting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to express concern about the “quality” of his party’s nominees.

In some races, Democrats even attempted to steer Republican voters away from more moderate candidates and toward Trump-aligned conservatives who questioned Biden’s 2020 victory. Once these nominees were confirmed, Democrats bombarded voters with messages portraying Republicans as too extreme on issues such as abortion rights or as enemies of democracy itself.

In many cases, the Democrats’ scorched-earth strategy worked, the NYTimes report stated. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro ran ads supporting State Senator Doug Mastriano in the Republican primary, then steamrolled him in the election on Tuesday.

Don Bolduc, a Republican challenger who also emphasised Trump’s stolen-election lies, was defeated in a Senate race in New Hampshire that Republicans in Washington once thought was winnable.

A Necessity in the Primaries but Bad for Elections

A Guardian panel, reacting to the results, said even if the Republican party seized control of the House and/or Senate, it was facing a very uncertain period in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections. “It is now overly clear to everyone that Trump is both a necessity in the primaries and a liability in the elections. Everyone but Donald Trump, that is,” it said.

The Abortion Take

Republicans were harmed by the fact that abortion was second only to inflation on the list of voters’ top concerns.

The shocking decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization by the Supreme Court (a Trump one), which overturned a 50-year precedent that many Americans had taken for granted.

Democrats had found an issue to rally their supporters around. When conservative Kansas voters emphatically rejected a ballot measure to ban abortion two months later, many saw a potential game-changer in the making. Democratic governors such as Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer positioned themselves as defenders of abortion rights, while liberal groups spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads highlighting the extreme positions many Republicans took to win their primaries, the New York Times explained.

With inputs from the New York Times

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