About 40% of Republicans think the only way their party will not get a congressional majority in the 2022 midterm elections is voter fraud, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll.
Thinking this way is absurd. If Republicans don’t win back a chamber of Congress this November, it will likely be the Senate. If they don’t win back the Senate, it will be thanks to weak candidates, not voter fraud.
THIS ELECTION IS YOUR BEST LAST HOPE TO CURB POWER-HUNGRY DEMOCRATS’ EXTREMISM
The Democratic Party has an effective majority in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tiebreaking vote. Republicans need a net gain of one seat this November to win back the majority, but poor candidate selection makes the task more difficult.
Although many Republican voters think voter fraud is a valid explanation for electoral losses thanks to former President Donald Trump, they should consider the results of the 2020 election before rushing to that conclusion again. The 2020 presidential election was nearly two years ago. Yet Trump and his supporters still have not proven the election was rigged against him. Voter fraud exists, and it’s wrong for liberals to suggest otherwise. But it’s usually not happening enough to sway the results of an election.
What can sway election results, however, is running people such as Herschel Walker, Mehmet Oz, Don Bolduc, and Blake Masters for U.S. Senate in swing states. Three of the four are trying to flip Democratic-held seats, while Oz is trying to defend a GOP seat held by outgoing Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).
Walker, the Republican candidate in Georgia, has countless problems. Not only is he alleged to have paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009, but he had personal baggage before entering the race. Walker lived in Texas before announcing his U.S. Senate bid, has lied about the 2020 presidential election results, and allegedly threatened to kill his ex-wife at one point.
Stellar candidate there, Republicans. While U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) seems far too liberal to represent Georgia, Republicans would have a better shot at beating him with a candidate on the ballot who knows how many children he has.
The same is true of Dr. Oz. In the 2010s, Oz was an abortion-supporting, gun control-backing, Obamacare-loving, pro-universal healthcare talk show host who pushed snake oil and transgenderism for children on his show. And now, with no political experience, someone who may live in New Jersey and has dual citizenship with U.S. adversary Turkey is running against the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. Again, Democrat John Fetterman seems too liberal to properly represent Pennsylvania, but he has won a statewide race before (in 2018).
U.S. Army veteran Don Bolduc faces challenges running in New Hampshire. He is running as a pro-Trump acolyte in a state that hasn’t voted Republican for president since 2000. New Hampshire has a state-level Republican trifecta, but it’s not looking for loony national Republicans. Bolduc is running as a 2020 election truther and anti-vaxxer who has called the state’s popular incumbent, moderate Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, a Chinese Communist sympathizer. And Bolduc is running against a strong candidate: Sen. Maggie Hassan defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte in 2016. And Hassan is the state’s former governor, so she has experience winning statewide elections.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In Arizona, venture capitalist Blake Masters presents some problems for Republicans. Critics try to paint Masters as antisemitic. In 2006, he wrote that the United States hadn’t been involved in a just war in over 140 years. That includes World War II, which the country joined after being bombed by Japan. On the Western Front, allied forces helped end the Holocaust by defeating Nazi Germany. Plus, in 2010, he shared an article calling Israel the North Korea of the Middle East. Masters is running against incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly, who unseated then-incumbent Republican Martha McSally in 2020.
In states that went blue in the last presidential election, Republicans should have been careful about whom they nominated. This November, they may lose one too many congressional seats. It’s easier to blame fraud than it is to blame bad candidates, but comforting lies don’t change the political reality.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
