POLITICO: Pennsylvania GOP launches ‘super MAGA Trump’ primary

Trump-Fueled Primary Dynamics Creating “Dilemma” For GOP In Vulnerable Open Senate Race

A new POLITICO report highlights how Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary is “already revolving around” Trump –– “creating a potential dilemma for the GOP in one of the nation’s most important races next year” and matching the dynamic that is escalating GOP Senate primaries across the country.

POLITICO: Pennsylvania GOP launches ‘super MAGA Trump’ primary
April 15, 2021
By Holly Otterbein 

Key points: 

• Though President Donald Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020 and will have been out of office for nearly two years by the time voters cast their ballots in the Senate election, the Republican primary here is already revolving around him — creating a potential dilemma for the GOP in one of the nation’s most important races next year.

• Multiple former Trump administration officials are eyeing the Senate seat. One likely contender has close ties to the Trump family that could give him a major leg up in the primary. Behind the scenes, other candidates have fostered relationships with former Trump aides or are working hard to develop them.

• Potential and declared Senate candidates are making the case to local party leaders that they are the best-equipped to win the endorsement of Trump himself.

• “When you talk to these people, everybody thinks that they’ll have the former president’s support,” said Sam DeMarco, chair of the Republican Party in western Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. “These people all believe, because there’s a connection there, they could possibly get his endorsement.”

• Pennsylvania’s 2018 midterms revolved around Trump as well. After Barletta became one of the first elected officials to back Trump in 2016, Trump returned the favor and endorsed the northeastern Pennsylvania politician early in the Senate primary, which he went on to win. Scott Wagner, a then-state senator who boasted in 2016 that he was going to buy 20,000 Trump signs, captured the gubernatorial nomination that year.

• Both candidates were defeated in the general election by double digits, prompting some voices in the Republican Party to make the case for a bigger-tent approach. But that hasn’t yet come to fruition. Instead, many GOP activists have demanded more loyalty tests to Trump: Earlier this year, several county parties in Pennsylvania censured Republican Sen. Pat Toomey for voting to impeach Trump after the insurrection at the Capitol.

• It is clear how much Trump is still influencing the party. And there is no doubt that GOP contenders will be scrutinized by party activists and operatives on how closely they align themselves with the former president.

See also: POLITICO: Republicans pray for truce after Trump attacks on McConnell; The Hill: Trump’s early endorsements reveal GOP rift; CNN: Analysis: Donald Trump’s fingerprints are all over the 2022 Senate fight; CNN: Senate Republicans already have a Donald Trump problem; Washington Post: Trump inspired Republican Senate candidates create early tensions over direction of the party; New York Times: Republicans Fear Flawed Candidates Could Imperil Key Senate Seats; The Hill: Trump allies line up ahead of potentially bruising primaries. 

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