Trump thumped. By John Hinderaker at Powerline.
The night is shaping up as a disaster for the GOP, and a comprehensive repudiation of Donald Trump.
I was wrong: I thought it would be a normal midterm election, but it is shaping up as a wipeout that will approach or even equal the Obama disaster of 2010.
Republicans lost every swing race, and some that were not expected to be in that category. Polling generally overestimated Republican strength.
Texas was the worst disaster. James Talarico won in what looks like a landslide, Governor Greg Abbott lost to someone no one had heard of three months ago, and the Texas legislature has, I understand, flipped blue. No one predicted that.
Apart from his general unpopularity, Trump contributed to the debacle with bad judgment.
- John Cornyn would have been re-elected easily in Texas, but Trump couldn’t resist endorsing the wildly unpopular Ken Paxton for the Senate seat.
- In South Carolina, he drew Lindsey Graham’s sister into the race. She had no qualifications, and when asked a question by a reporter — I think it was on foreign policy — she said she didn’t know much about it.
- Trump went so far as to endorse the pillow guy, Mike Lindell, for Governor of Minnesota, but fortunately Minnesota Republicans weren’t that dumb.
Trump’s wounds are, as usual, largely self-inflicted. …
Post-Trump Republicans?
Trump has been repudiated pretty much universally across the country. What comes next? The GOP will have to figure that out.
Looking ahead to 2028, one wonders whether anyone strongly associated with the Trump administration will have a serious chance at the Republican presidential nomination. I would think that JD Vance is now out of the picture. And, sadly, maybe Marco Rubio, too. Maybe the time will be right for Ron DeSantis. …
Great President, poor politician:
Donald Trump has been, for the most part, a good president. But he is a terrible politician, and that has finally caught up with him. And, unfortunately, with us.
Tomorrow we will enter into a very different political world.
He’s only one man. He needed more support. And he’s pretty old.