Donald Trump’s Endorsements Turned the Red Wave into an Almost Red Drought

Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake(right), who used to be a anchor for FOX Network, received Donald Trump’s endorsement in her race. Source for picture: ABC News

Donald Trump recruited a large bench of potential acolytes to run for office in hopes of using their success to announce a 2024 Presidential run, but the red wave former President Trump hoped for mellowed out into a red ripple at best and a red drought at worst. 

This is due to the overall poor quality of the candidates he selected. From Kari Lake (R-AZ), a former Fox News anchor and an election denier, to Doug Mastriano (R-PA), a proud participant in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, very few were actually able to secure a victory in a swing state. 

Looking at Arizona, Ms. Lake should have easily won her race. Katie Hobbs, while still a Democratic gubernatorial Candidate, refused to even debate Lake and ran a relatively quiet campaign, while Lake hosted many rallies and campaigned face-to-face with voters much more than Hobbs. Hobbs, also the former Secretary of State for Arizona, defeated Lake by just under one percentage point in a state where – given today’s unfavorable political climate towards Democrats – it should not have been this close. Hobbs’ win sends a strong message to Donald Trump that his MAGA politics are still seen as unfavorable to most swing-state electorates. 

Other swing states across the country where Trump campaigned for and endorsed candidates include Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Of his endorsements in those gubernatorial races, only the Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate, Joe Lombardo, was able to defeat his Democratic opponent. Voters rebuked Doug Mastriano (R-PA), Tudor Dixon (R-MI), and Tom Michels (R-WI) by margins of 3.4% in WI, 10.6% in MI, and 14.4% in PA, respectively.

 Further down ballot, Trump-backed election denying candidates in Secretary of State races across the country also lost. Voters also rebuked Jim Marchant in Nevada, Mark Finchem in Arizona, Kristina Karamo in Michigan and Kim Crockett in Minnesota. These results show that voters do actually value democracy as a top electoral issue, not just inflation as some political pundits tried to say.

This clear repudiation of Donal Trump’s election lies by voters should raise alarm bells to Republicans gearing up for a Trump 2024 President run. If they wish to run him again as their nominee, they can look to 2022 as a warning. Democrats held onto the Senate and Republicans only managed to flip one Gubernatorial seat in a year where they should have rode a red tsunami to victory thanks to their mostly Trumpian candidates.