Democrats are doing everything in their power to beat Republicans in 2024. Luckily for them, so are Republicans.
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) decided to rescind her endorsement of candidate Craig Riedel, a top GOP recruit running in a swing district in Ohio. What did Riedel do to be abandoned when House Republicans are staring down a tough election cycle with just a two-seat House majority? He was not very nice to former President Donald Trump.
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Riedel said of Trump in a leaked audio, “I think he is arrogant. I don’t like the way he calls people names. I just don’t think that’s very becoming of a president.” And that was enough for Stefanik to cut ties, saying that she was “very disappointed in his inappropriate comments regarding President Trump.” Republicans scrambled to find another recruit after Riedel’s benign (and accurate) comments leaked, and are now risking a split field that would benefit J.R. Majewski, the awful pro-Trump candidate who lost by 13 points in 2020.
In the meantime, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) both chose to endorse Trump, giving him the endorsement of the top four House Republicans. Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL) and Rick Scott (R-FL) are also among Trump’s recent endorsers. As my colleague Tim Carney wrote, this is shameful and morally bankrupt.
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But it is also a foolish political calculation. Trump remains the only candidate who could realistically lose to President Joe Biden. He has already lost to Biden, has not improved his favorable ratings, and is polling about even with (or below) Biden despite Biden having historically low popularity numbers for an incumbent president. Add in all of the losses that could be attributed to Trump’s toxic political brand in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, and you have Republicans not just morally debasing themselves, but doing so on behalf of the guy who is most likely to keep Democrats in power.
You could not come up with a dumber strategy. It is made worse when those Republicans aren’t just endorsing Trump but cutting loose Republicans who even mildly criticize him, as Stefanik and the House GOP are doing with Riedel. The GOP ship is sinking because it won’t throw overboard the captain who keeps crashing it into icebergs. What more could Democrats ask for?