Senate Republicans’ Flawed Candidates on Full Display as GOP Infighting Continues to Escalate

This week, as Senate Republicans’ flawed candidates continued to brawl in “increasingly crowded” and “contested” primaries, their “intraparty rifts” and candidates’ vulnerabilities were once again on full display in races across the map, with new reporting highlighting how Senate Republicans’ “history of recruiting poor-quality candidates and nasty primary fights” is set to “contribute to Democratic successes” in 2024. 

• In Michigan, Republicans’ “messy” “Senate showdown” continues to spiral. Within hours of Peter Meijer’s campaign launch, the Michigan Republican Party posted a tweet criticizing Meijer that they later blamed on an “over-zealous intern,” and the National Republican Senatorial Committee “clash[ed]” with Meijer, “saying he couldn’t win a GOP primary or bring out the base to win a general election.” Additionally, Heartland Signal reported that “Meijer refuse[d] to answer, three times, whether he believes in rape and incest exceptions for abortion.”
  

• In Montana, new reporting from American Journal News detailed that “[Tim] Sheehy is one of several 2024 GOP candidates endorsed by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative dark money group…committed to cutting both [Social Security and Medicare].”

• In Pennsylvania, new reporting from CNN’s KFile revealed that David McCormick increased investments in China by 108,000% when he was CEO of Bridgewater, including investments in companies blacklisted by the U.S. government. McCormick reportedly “invested millions of dollars in companies that outsourced…at least 15,000 American jobs – more than 2,600 of which were in Pennsylvania.” Meanwhile, all of the dangerous anti-choice Pennsylvania judges McCormick endorsed were loudly rejected by Pennsylvania voters in Tuesday’s election. The results are drawing fresh attention on how McCormick’s “extreme position on abortion” is a “big vulnerability” in 2024.

• In Nevada, new reporting from the Las Vegas Sun revealed Sam Brown is facing scandals over his PAC failing to provide promised support for state candidates, his efforts to conceal his Texas ties and hiding his leadership role with an anti-choice group’s Nevada chapter. Jeffrey Gunter leapt on the report, insisting that “These corrupt swampy schemes from Scam Brown are why Nevadans can’t roll the dice on a NeverTrump, McConnell-backed RINO.”
  

• In Ohio, reporting highlights that while Ohioans voted to protect abortion access last week, “all three Republicans [in the Senate primary] loudly opposed the reproductive rights amendment” and said they would overrule Ohioans by voting for a national abortion ban in the Senate.
  

• In Wisconsin, NRSC Chairman Steve Daines said national Republicans are “considering getting behind wealthy real estate executive Eric Hovde” following previous reports that the NRSC is bracing for “another GOP civil war” and “feud” with David Clarke, who is leading in the polls.
  

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