The primary elections this week have shown that voters may not care as much about endorsements as former president Donald Trump hoped they would, The Guardian reports.
The most eye-catching result of this week’s midterm primary elections was the Georgia governor primary, in which the incumbent, Brian Kemp, demolished Trump’s pick, former senator David Perdue.
Trump spent the better part of the last two years publicly savaging Kemp for his refusal to unilaterally overturn President Joe Biden’s Georgia win in the 2020 election.
Despite Trump’s public support and his name recognition, Perdue lost by a landslide. Trump also targeted the secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, and attorney general, Chris Carr, both of whom are polling higher than Trump’s endorsees by huge margins.
Experts say this shows Trump is not the kingpin that he very clearly thinks that he is for the GOP party. Trump has come to believe that he represents the GOP, and therefore his chosen candidates will slide in without a blink. But the primaries have shown it is not quite that easy for Trump, and that the Republican Party has more options than simply the red MAGA hat, analysts say.
Trump’s losses in Georgia continue a trend that has appeared so far in the Republican primary elections this year. Many of the Trump-endorsed candidates have lost. And they have all been extremely high-profile losses.
This includes the young and well-known Representative Madison Cawthorn, who held low percentages and was challenged by seven other Republican candidates. It also includes Senate candidates Dr. Oz and JD Vance. Trump raised the profiles of these candidates and the battleground for each election, bringing primaries into a national — and international — spotlight. Trump threw his weight behind these candidates, for the public to cast them aside.
Analysts say that the 2020 election and personal loyalty to Trump have diminishing returns with Republican primary voters.
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