Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies are holding their ground in Republican primaries as former President Donald Trump moves to hand-pick the party’s 2022 candidates and replace antagonists with loyalists who share his populist vision.
On Friday, the McConnell-aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, unveiled its first endorsement of the midterm election cycle, backing Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. As a rule, the group endorses Republican incumbents for reelection. But its support for Murkowski is conspicuous because it comes after Trump announced plans to oust her in next year’s GOP primary, traveling to Alaska to campaign against her if necessary.
The former president is angry with Murkowski for voting to convict him at trial in the Senate after his second impeachment in the House. The Senate Leadership Fund’s commitment to her nonetheless signals that neither McConnell nor his super PAC and, by extension, their wealthy donors are being cowed by Trump.
“McConnell will always stick up for his incumbents,” a top GOP Senate strategist said. Added a second knowledgeable Republican source, regarding the Senate Leadership Fund’s strategy: The super PAC is “not going to be afraid of intervening” in primaries. Regarding Murkowski, the group’s president, Steven Law, said in a statement: “Many politicians put themselves first, but Lisa Murkowski always puts Alaska first.”
Friction between Trump and McConnell has lingered into the spring because the former president resents the Senate minority leader for holding him responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The riot was perpetrated by Trump’s grassroots supporters; they believed the 45th president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through a massive scheme to defraud the voters and were attempting to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
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The Trump endorsement machine accelerated this week with a slew of announcements in Senate races.
Many Republican incumbents are making the grade: Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, although he has not decided whether to run for a third term, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. In Alabama, where there is an open seat, the 45th president endorsed Rep. Mo Brooks, although the candidate he spurned, Lynda Blanchard, also is a Trump loyalist (he appointed her United States ambassador to Slovenia).
The former president isn’t being coy about his endorsements. He aims to enforce fidelity — to him and his agenda — and cleanse the party of Never Trump Republicans and other heretics.
First on Trump’s hit list are the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him on Jan. 13 on the single article of inciting the ransacking of the Capitol, followed by the seven senators who voted to convict him. Trump also has called for the ouster of McConnell’s deputy, Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota. The former president lashed out at Thune for vocally opposing his efforts to overturn the November election.
Among those 18 GOP incumbents, only Murkowski and Thune are on the ballot in 2022, helping limit the potential for clashes between Trump and McConnell, the nation’s two most powerful Republicans. The other six Republican senators who voted to convict Trump were either reelected to another six-year term in 2020 or are retiring from Congress at the end of next year.
But there are still a few key open Senate seats out there, such as Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Plus, there are a few Democratic seats with open Republican primaries — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire. Many of these contests are likely to feature Republicans capable of becoming the consensus choice of both the traditional and Trump wings of the party.
However, McConnell and the Senate Leadership Fund are fully prepared to cross Trump if they do not like his choice in any of these primaries and if they believe that choice to be an “existential” threat to the GOP’s hold on the seat.
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“As for open seats,” the top Senate GOP strategist added. “Expect Senate Republicans to continue evaluating each race on a case-by-case basis, with the goal of getting the most conservative candidate who can win a general and reserving the right to actively prevent another Todd Akin.”
In 2012, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri was considered the most vulnerable Democrat up for reelection that cycle. But Republicans nominated Akin, then a congressman. After he suggested in an interview defending his opposition to abortion that some instances of rape were illegitimate, support for his candidacy evaporated, and McCaskill cruised to an expected second term. Six years later, she was ousted by now-Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican.
