Former President Donald Trump has been accused of taking the attention off the candidates he endorsed. Photo / AP
Former President Donald Trump has been accused of taking the attention off the candidates he endorsed. Photo / AP
Donald Trump is “toxic” and needs to stay well away from an upcoming crucial battle that could decide who controls the US Senate.
That’s the opinion of an unnamed adviser to the former President following an unexpectedly lacklustre showing by the Republican Party in this week’s midterm elections.
Two days after the poll it’s still unclear which party will control either of the chambers of Congress.
Many in the Republican Party have at least partly pinned the blame for this on Trump, who endorsed scores of divisive candidates and distracted from issues that may have peeled votes away from the Democrats.
Trump has shown no sign of slowing down and has hinted he could announce a presidential bid as soon as next Tuesday.
Control of the Senate is in the balance, with three states yet to be called.
Everything could come down to Georgia.
Neither the Democrats’ Raphael Warnock nor the Republicans’ Herschel Walker, who was endorsed by Trump, got more than 50 per cent of the vote in the state’s Senate race. A head-to-head “runoff” election between the two men will now take place on December 6.
According to the US NBC News, Republican operatives want Trump to postpone any announcement about a presidential run until after the Georgia race for fear it will take attention away from the poll. They also want Trump to stay as far away from the state as possible.
“Our whole focus as a party should be about winning the Senate, and the best way we do that is keep a laser focus on Georgia and President Biden,” a Trump source told the network.
“By making the political moment about his presidential campaign, it just causes issues: stories about whether Trump will campaign with Herschel, stuff about how Trump is toxic to a lot of Georgia voters,” they said.
“It’s a distraction.”
Trump could ‘ruin’ run-off election
Radio host Erick Erickson, who is close to Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp, has also urged Trump to stay out of the upcoming race.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Photo / AP
Erickson said he had been receiving emails from listeners asking how the campaign could ensure Trump didn’t turn up to Walker’s rallies.
“If they can keep Trump off the radar, maybe they can get Walker across the finish line. If Trump shows up to help that ruins it.”
Although it’s not clear whether Biden will campaign for the Democrats’ Warnock either amid concerns he is also unpopular in the Peach state.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told CNN: “The President will do whatever is helpful to Senator Warnock.”
Following the less-than-spectacular results for the Republicans in the midterms, there has been increased scrutiny on Trump’s influence over the party.
This week, Biden held a press conference to discuss the midterm results.
For the figurehead of the party that will almost certainly lose control of the House of Representatives and potentially the Senate too, he was surprisingly chipper.
“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” he said.
That’s likely because the ruling party, historically, is supposed to do very badly in the midterm elections. It’s a chance for voters to whack the party in power for any grumbles they may have.
Yet Biden could finish up with the best midterms performance by a first-term president for about 20 years.
And many in the Democratic Party are thanking Trump for that.
Trump sucked attention away from candidates, issues
Trump managed to suck attention away from the Democrats’ woes, Biden’s relative unpopularity and the economy and onto himself.
He wasn’t up for election himself, yet he held huge rallies focused on a possible 2024 presidential bid in the months leading up to the midterms. Even when he turned up to candidates’ rallies he monopolised the stage and the limelight.
In the run-up to the midterms, news.com.au visited Florida towns outside of the big cities. These were the places where Christian, conservative, Trump supporters lived.
Numerous voters said they liked Trump, they thought he did a good job. But they were also tired of him, his sniping, scandals and the focus on himself.
“With Trump, it’s always about Trump,” said one.
Concerns that backfired for voters
In crucial states, the economy was not even the biggest issue for voters despite rising prices.
It was abortion – or the impending lack of it. And there remained real concerns about the vulnerability of the US democratic process.
Both of these issues have Trump at their core.
Many of the 300-plus candidates that Trump endorsed either half or wholeheartedly backed his unproven claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
For huge numbers of voters, the prospect of having election deniers in charge of elections was not appealing
When it came to abortion, it was Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court that gave the conservative judges the majority needed to remove the constitutional right of women to terminate their pregnancies.
Trump’s base was ecstatic at the Court’s decision earlier this year. They had wanted that outcome for decades.
Extreme antiabortionists said even women who had been raped, or whose lives were in danger if they went through with a pregnancy should be forced to give birth. There were calls to ban abortion nationwide.
However, most Americans don’t share this view. Almost 70 per cent are against the Supreme Court’s decision. Even among Republicans, around 40 per cent of voters are pro-abortion.
Abortion galvanised women to register to vote. And a good chunk of them voted Democrat.
In key swing states, such as Pennsylvania, abortion was the number one issue.
Pennsylvania US Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz speaks during a Republican leadership forum. Photo / Getty Images
Trump endorsed candidate Mehmet Oz, who was aiming to become a Senator said abortion decisions should be made between the woman, her doctor and “local political leaders”. He lost the race with many alarmed that local politicians should have a say over their bodies.
In the conservative states of Kansas, Kentucky and Montana voters were asked to enshrine tougher new abortion measures into law. They declined to do so.
“The defeat of the amendment in Kentucky is another indication that there are limits to anti-abortion politics even in conservative states,” wrote Spencer Kimball on NBC News.
Trump’s candidates did well in some areas. Election denier JD Vance triumphed in Ohio, conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Green is back in Congress and Kari Lake in Arizona and Walker in Georgia may yet prevail.
But this was not the Trump tsunami of Congress he hoped for to turbocharge his presidential ambitions.
Trump has conceded the results were “somewhat disappointing” but talked up that more than 200 of the candidates he backed prevailed. However, many of those were seeking election to more minor state-based positions.
No wonder Biden is all smiles
The Republican leadership is now in a bind.
Trump’s star has been on the wane for some time – hence why he lost the 2020 election.
But he still has a hold over a huge number of the party’s most enthusiastic supporters.
The party dearly wants other Republicans to be able to shine. People like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who the New York Post memorably said on the day after the election was “DeFuture” of the party.
They want to be able to talk about issues like the economy, education and immigration.
But instead, they worry that all too often all voters see is Trump repeating claims about election fraud and insulting other Republicans.
Biden chuckled when he was asked on if he thought it would be Trump or DeSantis that would be a more formidable opponent.
