RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/07/trumps-growing-rivalry-with-desantis-must-be-contained/

Donald Trump is “absolutely” running for president again in 2024. That is what one person deep within the former president’s orbit told me off-the-record in March when I asked him. Trump himself was recorded by someone who attended a golfing event earlier this year in which the person recording the video said, “first on tee, the 45th president of the United States!” This comment prompted Trump to look up angrily at the camera and declare, “Forty-fifth and the 47th president!”

Given Trump’s penchant for the “art of the comeback,” one would be foolish to assume that Trump’s days as a presidential contender are behind him.

Trump even went as far as teasing in the last week that he would announce his intentions about running again in 2024 after the 2022 midterm elections. In the meantime, Trump has worked assiduously to cultivate a strong following among GOP candidates and has tried ensuring that his endorsement becomes a qualifier for primary candidates seeking GOP nominations this year. While these attempts to become the kingmaker of the GOP have had mixed results, the fact is that even out of office and having been kicked off Twitter, Trump is the star of this show. 

And that’s another aspect animating Trump’s continued dance in the political arena. He wants to be front-and-center, not only to avenge himself against his political rivals for what he believes was Biden’s theft of the 2020 presidential election but to also protect his brand. Should he no longer be the only star of the potential Republican 2024 presidential field, these things might be damaged—which could negatively impact Trump’s bottom line. 

Yet, there are other rising stars and potential rivals on the Right and there is much time between 2024 and today. Of note, former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, and current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have all been rumored to be interested in running for the Republican nomination in 2024. Still, Trump is by far the most visible political figure in America today—and certainly the most popular on the Right. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-trump-is-the-loser-in-a-georgia-rematch-kemp-abrams-raffensperger-primary-voters-11654283552?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Ordinarily it’s a bad idea to search for national political significance in state primary elections, but these are not ordinary times.

The data points: On May 24 Republican Gov. Brian Kemp defeated former Sen. David Perdue by 52 points, and Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger bested his nearest opponent, Rep. Jody Hice, by 18 points. Both men were incumbents, but their challengers are accomplished politicians in their own right.

The remarkable thing about both races is Donald Trump’s assertive role in them. He carried on one-sided feuds with both winners and endorsed the losers. Mr. Raffensperger had insisted that Mr. Trump’s allegations about widespread voter fraud in Georgia were false, and in a 2020 postelection phone call with the president flatly rejected the idea that the secretary of state could “find” the 11,780 votes needed to deliver Georgia. Mr. Kemp later certified the election, moving Mr. Trump to call for the governor’s resignation and to say he was “ashamed” to have endorsed him in 2018. The former president’s hostility to both incumbents seemed to indicate electoral trouble for them, but they had none.

https://thehill.com/news/campaign/3511563-mccormick-concedes-to-oz-in-pennsylvania-senate-gop-primary/

Businessman David McCormick has conceded to rival Mehmet Oz in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, capping off a confusing and narrowly divided process.

McCormick said during a media availability on Friday that he had “came so close” on election night and had spent more than two weeks “making sure that every Republican vote was counted in a way that would result in the will of Pennsylvanian voters being fulfilled” after a recount was called with Oz leading by fewer than 1,000 votes.

“But it’s now clear to me, with the recount largely complete, that we have a nominee. And today I called Mehmet Oz to congratulate him on his victory,” he said. “And I told him what I always said to you — that I will do my part to try to unite Republicans and Pennsylvanians behind his candidacy, behind his nomination for the Senate.”

In a brief Twitter thread, Oz confirmed that McCormick had called him and said he was “tremendously grateful” for his support.

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com/

The question in the title, of course, is aimed at Mr. Trump and the 2024 Presidential election. While I admire what Mr. Trump accomplished as President and for the way he battled media vilification, I find his ego, language and bullying offensive.

Obviously, no one knows the answer to the question, including, in all probability, Mr. Trump. The election is thirty months away, with midterms coming first. Mr. Trump will turn 76 on June 14 – granted he would be younger than was Mr. Biden in 2020, but no longer in the flower of youth, nor even in the comfort of middle age. Mr. Trump remains controversial and divisive – not the soothing, empathetic figure the nation needs when it is fraught with division as to who we are and what we stand for. (Is it really alright to let young men in high school who self-identify as women use girls’ showers? The condoning of deviant behavior in the name of social justice, no matter what the LBGTQ community may claim, is aberrant.)

Mr. Trump remains the dominant figure in Republican politics. A poll of potential Republican primary voters taken in March of this year by Morning Consult, a global decision intelligence company, gave Mr. Trump 55% of the vote, Ron DeSantis 12%, Mike Pence 10% and Nikki Haley 7%. Ohio’s J.D. Vance appeared to have been helped by Mr. Trump’s endorsement in the May 3rd Senatorial primary. Other Trump-endorsed candidates like Georgia’s Herschel Walker’s bid for the U.S. Senate and Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s campaign for governor were successful. Yet Virginia’s gubernatorial election last November and Georgia’s primary on May 24th suggest Mr. Trump is not a fool-proof king maker. In fact, last week’s Harvard-Harris poll showed a preference for Mr. Trump had declined to 41% among Republican primary voters.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/new-election-integrity-fears-georgia-county-ballot-machines-thousands

The Democratic primary for a Georgia county has been called into question after a hand count revealed the voting machines were off by thousands of ballots.

Marshall Orson, a Democratic DeKalb County school board member running for the county commission, asked the local elections board on Thursday to not certify the results as scheduled on Friday due to “numerous issues” with the race.

Orson asked for an “independent review” and a formal recount of the election in his letter to the board, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“There is no rational basis for believing that there are not continuing issues with the results and the results should not be certified with the continuing existence of multiple substantive issues and concerns,” Orson wrote. “Doing so would pose a substantial risk not only to the confidence the public will have in the overall election results from this race but could extend to the entire primary as well as the general election.”

The initial Democratic primary results showed Orson winning for commission District 2 with Lauren Alexander in second place and Michelle Long Spears in third. This would have put Orson against Alexander in a runoff election.

However, Spears noticed that the results showed she received zero votes at most election precincts. 

The secretary of state’s office admitted late last month to making several programing mistakes in the ballot equipment that affected the final tally. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-democratic-circus-is-shaping-up-in-the-new-york-tenth-congressional-district-primary/?utm_

“As depressing as politics is, we need to look for any entertainment available. It looks like the Democratic primary in New York’s tenth congressional district will provide as many laughs, groans, pratfalls and surprises as a world-class circus when it comes to town.”

Now that New York’s highest court surprised everyone by tossing out the state’s blatant Democratic gerrymander of its congressional districts, voters can look forward to real competitive races in many of the districts.

A new congressional district that includes Lower Manhattan and the “woke” Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn won’t be competitive in November, but the wide-open Democratic primary will provide a fascinating look at every crazy form of leftism ever catalogued.

The most well-known candidate is former NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio, who left office loathed by even most Democrats, but who’s banking on some people forgetting his two failed terms.

Yuh-Line Niou represents Manhattan’s Chinatown in the state assembly, but is best known for embracing the Black Lives Matter campaign, as when she liked a tweet that contained a photo comparing the attendees at a recent police funeral to Nazi storm troopers.

https://spectatorworld.com/newsletter/what-primary-season-has-taught-us-so-far/

What primary season has taught us so far

It may not feel like it, but we’re only two months into a seven-month-long primary season ahead of this year’s midterms. There are still thirty-seven states in which the voters are yet to have their say on the major parties’ candidates ahead of Election Day. In other words, it’s still early. But with the calendar front-loaded with attention-grabbing showdowns in important states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, it’s not too late to tease out some big-picture takeaways. Here are three:

Few reasons for Trump to be cheerful

The least surprising thing about the Republican primaries so far is the lack of a definitive answer to the question of Donald Trump’s influence in the GOP. But brush past the black-and-white, pro- or anti-Trump dichotomy with which so much coverage oversimplifies the state of the modern Republican Party, and you find more reasons for Trump to be worried about his waning influence than evidence of an unassailable position at the head of the party.

The Georgia gubernatorial primary saw one of the biggest villains in the MAGA pantomime cruise to victory. In fact, Brian Kemp’s demolition of Trump’s preferred alternative, former senator David Perdue, was so total as to lose some of its broader political impact. Foregone conclusions just don’t capture the imagination as much as narrow wins. Trump would point to results elsewhere to demonstrate his power: the endorsement of J.D. Vance in Ohio, who saw a swift surge in the polls after he received the former president’s seal of approval shortly before primary day. One footnote to this sign of Trump’s power: Team Vance was confident of a late surge — and a primary win — with or without Trump’s endorsement. Spin, perhaps, or a hint that there is a bit more to the Ohio story than meets the eye.

Elsewhere, things get less clear-cut but no more reassuring for Trump