Republican primaries fill up as GOP eyes big gains by David M. Drucker
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/republican-primaries-fill-up-as-gop-eyes-big-gains
Crowded Republican primaries for Senate are growing more crowded by the day as ambitious conservatives move to seize political opportunity as the party’s 2022 prospects soar amid President Joe Biden’s struggles.
In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, states where competition for the Republican nomination for Senate is competitive and the field of candidates robust, new candidates are emerging. The rush of fresh Republican contenders for higher office is coinciding with growing voter dissatisfaction with Biden and generic-ballot polling for Congress that suggests the GOP could sweep the Democrats from power in the midterm elections.
In some of these Republican Senate primaries, former President Donald Trump has long since issued his endorsement. Trump’s seal of approval is influential with GOP voters, and early polling has shown that the candidates who have received his backing are favorites to win their primaries. But the political conditions are so good for the party, even that has been insufficient to keep Republicans from mounting 2022 campaigns.
“With all of the crises that we’re surrounded with, the disastrous fall of Afghanistan was the tipping point for me,” Republican Marjorie Eastman, who jumped into the Senate race in North Carolina months after Trump endorsed Rep. Ted Budd, said recently in a Fox News interview. “The Biden administration failed us, and that is why I’m running for U.S. Senate.”
In recent days, crowded primaries in Arizona and Missouri, where Trump has yet to pick a preferred candidate, have seen new entrants.
In Arizona, Justin Olson is the latest Republican to announce a Senate bid. Olson, an elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, joins state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, businessman Jim Lamon, venture capital executive Blake Masters, and Mick McGuire, the former adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard, in the race for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
In Missouri, where Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is retiring, businessman and state Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Schatz joins a GOP primary field that includes former Gov. Eric Greitens, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Rep. Billy Long, lawyer and gun rights activist Mark McCloskey, and state Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Schatz announced his candidacy on Nov. 16, the day after Biden signed into law a $1 trillion infrastructure bill supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“These days, too many politicians are fakes and frauds. They switch political parties and abandon principles. They’ll do anything and say anything to win an election,” Schatz said in a statement. “Our country has real problems, and we need real leaders who understand how to get the job done. We’ll never get out of this mess with fake politicians and their fake solutions.”
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, where Trump endorsed 2020 congressional candidate Sean Parnell and other Republicans are still contending for the Senate nomination, yet more candidates could jump into the race soon.
Television personality Mehmet Oz, known as “Dr. Oz,” has said he might run. Hedge fund manager David McCormick also has been talked up as a potential candidate, including by Kellyanne Conway, a former senior adviser to Trump. Incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, is retiring.
Senate Democrats are clinging to a 50-seat majority that rests on Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. Republicans need only win one seat, net, to win an outright majority in the chamber.
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