National Democrats are continuing to warn about several extreme Republican candidates who, if elected, supposedly would lead to the end of democracy. At the state time, Democrats are doing all they can to help those candidates move one step closer to office.
The latest example comes from the Arizona Democratic Party, which is messing around with the Republican nomination for the governorship. In terms of general election viability, businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson is widely seen as the GOP’s strongest choice against the Democrats. Cleverly, then, Arizona Democrats are assiduously undermining Robson on behalf of Republican rival Kari Lake, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Party officials issued a press release “thanking” Robson for her past contributions to Democratic candidates, which obviously would look bad to most Republican voters, thus trying to negate Robson’s accusations that Lake has done the same.
Looks like the @azdemparty is trying to give @KariLake some help against @Karrin4Arizona. Whoever wins the GOP primary will go into the general election as the favorite, so this could be a “be careful what you wish for” situation for the Dems. pic.twitter.com/ENohDYBBaC
— Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) July 11, 2022
The attack would be expected from Lake’s own campaign, but it is coming from the Arizona Democratic Party, which is obviously hoping to face a more beatable candidate than Robson. Pushing Trump’s “Big Lie,” Lake has said it is “disqualifying” and “sickening” that Robson would not say the 2020 election was stolen. Instead of staying out of the GOP’s fight or jumping in to help bury an election truther in Lake, Arizona Democrats are defending her and attacking her more sensible opponent on her behalf.
This is playing out in states across the country. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro propped up an election truther during the GOP primary in the race for governor. Shapiro is only leading in the polls by 3 or 4 points, meaning there is a real shot that a “stolen election” Trump truther could be put in charge of Pennsylvania in time for the 2024 election. Democrats are even taking up this strategy in House races, potentially adding more election truthers to the GOP’s House caucus.
The reason for the strategy is simple enough: Democrats view these extreme candidates as their best chance to win in a national environment that favors the GOP. Take Colorado, where Democrats spent millions to prop up election conspiracy theorist Ron Hanks in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate. That effort failed, and now, Sen. Michael Bennet is sounding the alarm over a race with his more competitive challenger, businessman Joe O’Dea.
That’s because you failed in your effort to buy the GOP primary for a “Stop the Steal” candidate. https://t.co/WJmGBqRGY2
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) July 11, 2022
Normally, this kind of election gamesmanship would be par for the course. But prominent Democratic politicians across the country can’t find enough television cameras to warn about the consequences of electing Republicans like Lake, while Democratic campaigns are pushing those candidates one step closer to power. If these candidates and their supporters are “threats to democracy,” as we are so often told, the same must be said of these Democratic campaigns.
