If it does, this country is lost
It’s one thing if the conviction doesn’t change any votes. The two bases are pretty locked in on Trump and nothing seems to shake the right wing from their love and worship of their Dear Leader. But if it actually moves votes in his favor, we have bigger problems.
These red state Senate candidates are obviously betting that it will help them, which is almost as bad:
Republican Senate candidates released ads Monday savaging Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the chamber’s two most vulnerable Democrats this cycle. And top GOP officials are even going after former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan who represents the GOP’s best shot at winning a deep-blue Senate seat after he issued a statement calling for respect for the legal process rather than reflexive support for the former president.
The conviction hasn’t meaningfully yet made its way into Senate races in purple states such as Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, but the contests in Montana, Ohio and Maryland represent marquee opportunities for Republicans to eat away at Democrats’ Senate majority.
Businessman Tim Sheehy, Tester’s opponent, fired the first shot Monday on the issue, releasing an ad dubbing the prosecution of Trump “lawfare” led by President Joe Biden and a radical left that wants to “throw Trump in jail.”
“And Jon Tester is standing right by their side,” a narrator says before highlighting a past clip of Tester on MSNBC saying someone needs “to go back and punch [Trump] in the face” and highlighting Tester’s vote to convict Trump in each of his impeachment trials.
Bernie Moreno, the Republican businessman challenging Brown, followed up with a digital ad of his own that features a past video of Brown saying that “Biden’s politics now are not much different from mine.”
“It doesn’t matter the issue, Sherrod Brown stands with Biden, even as he turns the judicial system into a weapon to interfere in the presidential election,” a narrator says in the video. “Sen. Sherrod Brown stands by, refusing to condemn Biden’s politically motivated witch hunt.”
I have to wonder if these guys aren’t suffering a little bit of Fox news brain rot.
Hogan, on the other hand, may have made the smarter move. He’s running in a blue state and he needs Democratic votes. Trump’s campaign telling him that his candidacy is dead, may actually help him. (On the other hand, he’s going to need every last Republican to vote for him and there are plenty of MAGA types in rural Maryland who may just decide not to vote for him because he rejected Dear Leader.)
This may end up being a non-issue by the time the election rolls around. These are very tumultuous times. But I just have to hope that even voters in red states aren’t persuaded that being a convicted felon is Trump’s best selling point.