ICYMI: Senate Republicans’ electability headache [POLITICO]

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POLITICO: Senate Republicans’ electability headache
Republicans have a problem, illustrated by the Pennsylvania Senate race: continue a lackluster record of hand picking candidates, or do nothing?
By Burgess Everett
May 14, 2022

Key Points:

• Senate Republicans have one clear edict from Mitch McConnell heading into the midterms: Embrace electable candidates who can reclaim the majority. Actually achieving that goal is proving impossible.

• Their laissez-faire approach to critical primaries risks saddling them with Republican nominees who blow it in November.

• Nowhere is the downside of a free-for-all approach more potent for Republicans than in Pennsylvania.

• There’s a rising sense of unease among party insiders that Republicans could end up with candidates who make a Senate takeover more difficult.

• Barnette is the most immediate worry, though former Gov. Eric Greitens in Missouri, state Rep. Ron Hanks in Colorado and Arizona’s Wild West primary are all viewed as potential stumbling blocks to a GOP takeover.

• Barnette wants McConnell gone as leader, has targeted LGBTQ people and Muslims in her rhetoric and declined to answer basic biographical questions. She’s also focused on false claims of a fraudulent 2020 election, something Republicans have urged their candidates to avoid.

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