Senate GOP “Facing a Potential Intraparty Brawl” [The Hill]
The GOP is bracing for a series of “nasty primary fights” as “unelectable” candidates threaten “a repeat of previous cycles when conservatives caused headaches by defeating more-mainstream GOP candidates.” From Roy Moore and Kris Kobach threatening to run despite warnings from national Republicans, to North Carolina, where Thom Tillis has earned a self-funding primary challenger while memos from conservative groups label him a “weak incumbent,” these looming battles “threaten to throw a curveball into the Republican strategy.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Hill: Conservatives spark threat of bloody GOP primaries
By Jordain Carney
Key Points:
- Senate Republicans are facing a potential intraparty brawl as they fight to hold onto the chamber next year.
- ….nasty primary fights brewing in a handful of key states could threaten to throw a curveball into the Republican strategy, potentially setting the party up for a repeat of previous cycles when conservatives caused headaches by defeating more-mainstream GOP candidates, only to lose to Democrats in November.
- Three races have jumped into the spotlight as looming problem areas for Republicans: In Alabama and Kansas, where conservatives Roy Moore and Kris Kobach are flirting with Senate bids, and in North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C) is viewed as vulnerable to a primary challenge.
- The GOP frustration with a potential Senate bid by Moore boiled over this week after the former Alabama chief justice predicted he could beat Jones in a 2020 rematch, after losing in 2017.
- A second Senate bid would be a nightmare for national Republicans, who view Moore as a guarantee that Jones will be reelected despite Trump winning the state by nearly 30 points in 2016.
- Moore isn’t the only conservative causing heartburn for Republicans as they try to solidify their 2020 strategy. National Republicans have similar concerns about Kobach, who lost his 2018 bid to be Kansas’s governor and said earlier this month that he was still “actively considering” a 2020 Senate run.
- But it’s not just open seats that are showing signs of trouble for Republicans.
- Tillis, meanwhile, could find himself a target of the Club for Growth. The group hasn’t taken a position on the North Carolina race but circulated a recent poll arguing that Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), who the Club for Growth is trying to nudge into the race, would be a “strong opponent” against Tillis. The polling memo also called Tillis a “weak incumbent” and that “if the Washington establishment and Mitch McConnell’s PAC support Tillis’s campaign, it will further erode his support.”
Read the full story here.
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