GOP Summer of Chaos: Trump’s “Revenge Rallies” Escalating GOP Senate Primaries

As Trump embarks on his “series of ‘revenge rallies’” beginning in Ohio on Saturday, new reports are highlighting increasing concerns among Republicans that Trump’s outsized influence on key battleground races “could damage his party’s chances at the ballot box in next year’s midterm election.”

• Pennsylvania’s outgoing Republican Senator Pat Toomey told The Financial Times that he’s concerned Trump will endorse candidates “based on their loyalty to him, who are not strong candidates in their own right” leading to “an election in 2022 that goes worse than it should.”

• And new reporting from the Independent detailed how Republicans “are sounding the alarm that Trump’s return to the stage will be a gift […] to Democrats” –– one Republican consultant even confessed “‘It’s only a matter of time until the fun kills people, or our chances of winning a totally winnable election, or both’.”

The spotlight this weekend will be on Ohio as the crowded Republican Senate primary there continues to escalate and intensify thanks to Trump’s looming presence: 

• The Sandusky Register emphasized that the GOP primary “could get even more mean” as the crowded field is “fawning for [Trump’s] attention and fighting for his endorsement.”

• And POLITICO reports that at his Saturday rally, Trump “will be fending off the political flirtations of Senate candidates eager for him to anoint their candidacy” –– there has even been a discussion to ban photos with Trump so that the desperate Senate candidates cannot use the photos to “falsely imply they received his endorsement.”

• The fawning over the former president led the Sandusky Register’s editorial board to declare: “this is a pathetic field.” 

“First North Carolina and now Ohio: Trump’s appearances are escalating Republican Senate primaries across the country and making these intraparty fights even worse,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein. “In key Senate battlegrounds Republicans are facing a Summer of Chaos in their primaries, and Trump’s tour is only making it worse.” 

Read more about how Trump is escalating Republican Senate primaries and forcing GOP Senate candidates to face a long summer of chaos: 

The Hill: Past criticism of Trump becomes potent weapon in GOP primaries; HuffPost: After Criticizing Trump, GOP Senate Candidates Now Desperate For His Endorsement; Roll Call: Trump could shake up key Senate races with endorsements; National Journal: Trump is sabotaging the GOP’s Senate prospects; Axios: Pro-McConnell PAC prepared to intervene in 2022 primaries; CNN Analysis: Mitch McConnell was asked about Trump and 2022. His answer is hilarious.

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