“Train-Wreck Senate Race”: Pennsylvania’s Open Seat Already Major GOP Headache As Bitter Civil War Divides Republicans

New POLITICO Report Details Major Warning Signs That “Intraparty Tensions Could Damage Republican Prospects in 2022”

As a brutal civil war threatens to consume the GOP across the country, new POLITICO reporting details how the Pennsylvania Senate race is already a “train-wreck” for Republicans as “MAGA crashes into moderates.” The report finds that the upcoming Republican contest for retiring Senator Pat Toomey’s seat will be a “proxy fight between Trump loyalists and those who believe the former president damaged the party’s ability to compete here.” On top of a messy primary, internal conflict over Toomey’s vote to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol is “exacerbating party fissures” amid fears that the “intraparty tensions could damage Republican prospects in 2022.”

This key battleground is already a major headache for Washington Republicans. Not only are open seats “more difficult to defend,” the GOP in Pennsylvania is “seriously splintered” — with one local state party committee member admitting recently: “We’re in a mess.” In the last month, 12,000 Republican voters have changed their registration and left the party. The looming nasty primary between these deeply divided flanks is exactly what Republican strategists fear: an ugly battle that will “yield candidates or divisions that squander otherwise winnable races.”

“Republicans’ failure to govern and years of peddling false conspiracy theories have resulted in a deeply divided party racked with toxic internal feuds heading into the next election,” said DSCC spokesperson Shea Necheles. “This is a self-inflicted disaster for Mitch McConnell, Rick Scott and the NRSC, with no easy solution to fix the train-wreck these open seat races are becoming in Pennsylvania and other key battlegrounds.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

POLITICO: MAGA crashes into moderates in train-wreck Senate race
By Holly Otterbein

Key Points:

• Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey isn’t running for reelection in 2022. But his vote to convict former President Donald Trump is already rocking the race to succeed him.

• County parties have censured Toomey, prompting backlash from centrists and even some Trump supporters who think the efforts will hurt the GOP in upcoming elections. Former Rep. Ryan Costello, a moderate Republican eyeing a bid for the Senate, has publicly come to Toomey’s defense in the wake of his vote. Former Trump aides, in turn, are making plans to torpedo Costello before he announces a campaign.

• The turmoil is the latest evidence that Trump’s departure from office has not at all diminished his role in the GOP — in Pennsylvania, in fact, the primary is likely to be a proxy fight between Trump loyalists and those who believe the former president damaged the party’s ability to compete here.

• The back-and-forth over Toomey’s vote is also exacerbating party fissures in a state where Republicans lost Senate and gubernatorial contests in 2018 and the presidential contest in 2020. The intraparty tensions could damage Republican prospects in 2022, when control of both the House and the Senate will be up for grabs.

• But as several Republicans fret over the political fallout of the party’s condemnation of Toomey, others are already battling over how the senator’s vote — and those who stood up for him — will be remembered by voters in 2022. Former Trump aides told POLITICO they are planning a public relations campaign against Costello, who has defended Toomey as a “foremost policy wonk” for GOP legislative priorities.

• The national anti-Trump group Republican Accountability Project, meanwhile, is expected to launch a campaign to support Toomey and hopes that anti-MAGA Republicans will be encouraged to run for his seat in 2022.

• The uproar over Toomey’s vote has also led to questions about the role he will play in attempting to influence the contest for his seat. Some pro-Trump Republicans predict that a stamp of approval from Toomey could be harmful in the Senate GOP primary. Toomey’s office declined to comment for this story.

• “It would be foolish for any statewide candidate seeking the Pennsylvania GOP’s endorsement to accept Sen. Toomey’s endorsement or donations from him,” said Manz. “I imagine a feckless hack like Ryan Costello would gladly align himself with Sen. Toomey, but he won’t even place in the Senate primary. He’s a non-factor ultimately.”

• In an indication of how divided the two flanks of the GOP are, Costello struck back at Manz with a scathing comment.

• “Before Greg Manz worked for Trump, he worked at the state party. Everyone back then and before used to make fun of him [because] he’s a clown. No one respects him and a few years from now, he will probably be pumping gas in New Jersey,” he said. “No one knows who he is. He just does what he’s told like the little errand boy he is.”

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