GOP Summer of Chaos: Infighting Continues to Escalate in GOP Senate Primaries

Last week, Senate Republicans’ “intraparty rifts that defined the 2022 cycle and contributed to the GOP’s loss[es]” were on full display in races across the map.

• In Nevada, new reporting highlights Tony Grady is expected to enter the already “crowded” and “chao[tic]” “primary brawl,” joining Brown and “vocal election denier and Trump ally” Jim Marchant, while Roll Call detailed how McConnell backed candidate Sam Brown previously  “disparaged political action committees aligned with the Senate leadership” and “wasn’t shy” about the fact that he ”did not trust McConnell” last cycle.
  

• In Ohio, the “GOP primary, which is expected to be another bruising, expensive, and competitive affair,” continues to escalate: Frank LaRose’s close ties to State Issue 1 are causing “blowback” that could “hurt” his Senate campaign. After LaRose ran for cover and called on his primary opponents to support Issue 1, Bernie Moreno’s campaign “hit back,” saying “what Ohio needs is a Secretary of State that is paying attention to the job to which he was elected,” because “Frank LaRino is putting his failing ambitions ahead of what’s right for Ohio conservatives.” 

• In West Virginia, a major story in POLITICO highlighted how Mooney is refusing to “get out of the way” and is calling out national Republicans for backing Jim Justice. And Mooney’s surrogate Sen. Rand Paul is even attacking Justice’s “well-documented [health] issues” and questioned “how he’ll be able to serve.” 

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