Pro-Trump Senate Candidates Creating “Early 2022 Headaches” For Republicans, With A “Combative Primary Season In Store”

Flawed Candidates And Their “All-Consuming” Pursuit Of The Former President’s Support Creating Challenges For Senate Republicans, Could Imperil GOP Seats

New reports this week detail the increasing “perils” and “challenges” that Senate Republicans face as flawed GOP candidates flood into Senate races with baggage, fringe views and toxic positions on the issues. These “early 2022 headaches” are kick-starting a divisive primary season defined by nasty infighting and an “all-consuming” pursuit of Donald Trump’s endorsement.

• The Washington Post highlights how “hard-edge pro-Trump conservatives are rushing into Republican Senate races that have been upended by the impending retirements of veteran lawmakers.” Their “stampede to the right” is “heralding a long battle ahead over the direction of the GOP” and “setting up a potential power struggle” as Republican leaders grapple with “internal divisions.” GOP operatives “said the emerging field of Republican candidates is raising concerns.”

• The New York Times reports that the new political landscape, “in which former President Donald J. Trump is the only true north for grass-roots voters,” could produce “flawed candidates” and “imperil key Senate seats.” With “a combative primary season in store” for Republicans across a challenging map, “even deep-red Missouri and Alabama pose potential headaches.”

“Mitch McConnell and the NRSC already have a massive problem on their hands with a growing list of retirements and defensive headaches in the middle of an escalating Republican civil war,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “These messy primaries with flawed candidates embracing toxic positions and trying to out-Trump each other are destabilizing and will hand Democrats more opportunities to take advantage of the chaos across the map.”

Read more about the bruising 2022 primary season Senate Republicans are facing:

Washington Post: Pro-Trump Senate candidates create early 2022 headaches for Republican leaders amid battle over party’s future

• More than a year ahead of the first state primaries, hard-edge pro-Trump conservatives are rushing into Republican Senate races that have been upended by the impending retirements of veteran lawmakers — heralding a long battle ahead over the direction of the GOP, with not only control of the Senate but the tenor of the nation’s politics at stake.

• The early entrance of so many zealously pro-Trump candidates — all of whom have endorsed Trump’s bogus claims of rampant election fraud — is an early challenge for top Republican leaders in Washington as they seek to regain the Senate majority from Democrats and deal with their own internal divisions between those in the party who remain loyal to Trump at all costs and those who want to forge a GOP identity distinct from the former president.

• Trump, meanwhile, has fingered McConnell as being part of the problem and said in a blistering statement last month that he would back primary candidates where “necessary and appropriate,” setting up a potential power struggle between the former president and the Kentucky Republican over who will guide the party through key Senate races.

• Several GOP operatives, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe internal thinking, said the emerging field of Republican candidates is raising concerns.

• Although Scott said he asked Trump to get involved only after GOP voters select a nominee, he acknowledged that Trump made no commitment to do so.

New York Times: Republicans Fear Flawed Candidates Could Imperil Key Senate Seats

• The entry of two hard-right candidates this week into Senate races in Missouri and Alabama exposed the perils for Republicans of a political landscape in which former President Donald J. Trump is the only true north for grass-roots voters.

• In the Trump era, the pursuit of his endorsement is all-consuming, and absent Mr. Trump’s blessing, there is no mechanism for clearing a cluttered primary field.

• With the former president focused elsewhere — on settling scores against Republicans who advanced his impeachment or showed insufficient loyalty — a combative Senate primary season is in store for the 2022 midterms, when Republicans who hope to regain the majority face a difficult map.

• They are fighting to hold on to five open seats after a wave of retirements of establishment figures, and even deep-red Missouri and Alabama pose potential headaches.

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