GOP executives heartbroken by defeat plan to jump into Senate race

The leg­endary Amer­i­can foot­ball play­er who point­ed a gun at his ex-wife. Rivals who almost quar­reled in a TV debate. A ven­ture cap­i­tal­ist who expressed sym­pa­thy for the Unabomber.

This is just one example.

Last year’s Repub­li­can Sen­ate pri­maries in sev­er­al major states had a car­ni­val-like atmos­phere, with far-right can­di­dates at the cen­ter of the debate, with care­less rhetoric and tox­ic per­son­al issues result­ing in the The par­ty lost its chance to regain a majority.

But amidst the vote cri­sis, par­ty lead­ers, includ­ing Flori­da Sen­a­tor Rick Scott, stood on the side­lines and insist­ed on remain­ing neu­tral in the race.

Now that the 2024 elec­tion is about to begin, Repub­li­cans are tak­ing steps to avoid repeat­ing them­selves. The Nation­al Repub­li­can Sen­ate Com­mit­tee, for­mer­ly led by Scott, inter­venes in par­ty pri­maries in major states to fund can­di­dates they endorse to field can­di­dates who are more like­ly to be accept­ed by vot­ers in the gen­er­al election.

This may be eas­i­er said than done. Sim­i­lar attempts in recent years have met with oppo­si­tion from with­in the par­ty and have end­ed in failure.

The new move will once again test whether the Repub­li­can estab­lish­ment can return to the main­stream a par­ty that has been shaped by Don­ald Trump’s rebel­lious presidency.

Sen­a­tor Steve Danes of Mon­tana, the new NRSC chair­man, said, “When I got the job, peo­ple kept telling me that Repub­li­cans were sick of los­ing.” “I’m going to do what­ev­er it takes to amass a can­di­date who can win both the pri­ma­ry and the gen­er­al elec­tion because this is our last chance to tar­get red state Democ­rats in the decade.

This new approach was demon­strat­ed at an NRSC retreat this month at the exclu­sive Break­ers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., which brought togeth­er sen­a­tors and can­di­dates, includ­ing Dave McCormick.

The hedge fund CEO nar­row­ly lost the 2022 Penn­syl­va­nia Repub­li­can Sen­ate pri­ma­ry to pro-Trump tal­ent Dr. Mehmet Oz and near­ly five points to Demo­c­rat John Fet­ter­man in the gen­er­al elec­tion. defeated.

McCormick, who request­ed anonymi­ty to dis­cuss details of the closed-door meet­ing, said he is con­sid­er­ing run­ning again in 2024 and spoke at sev­er­al days of events, accord­ing to two senior Repub­li­can strategists.

Lat­er, at a packed ball­room that includ­ed at least one oth­er can­di­date vying for a seat in Penn­syl­va­nia, Danes praised McCormick and said he would make a good can­di­date, said one of the strate­gists. says.

Also, accord­ing to two oth­er Repub­li­can strate­gists famil­iar with the mat­ter, Mr. McCormick has been linked to Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell and has received fund­ing from the Sen­ate Lead­er­ship Fund, a super PAC that spends mil­lions on tele­vi­sion adver­tis­ing. They are promised support.

If McCormick wins, the Sen­ate Repub­li­can Par­ty will be in full swing.

Anoth­er exam­ple is the com­mit­tee’s ear­ly endorse­ment of Rep. Jim Banks in the Indi­ana Sen­ate primary.

Indi­ana is a strong Repub­li­can state, but a crowd­ed pri­ma­ry like it was in 2018 could drain resources that would be bet­ter spent in a com­pet­i­tive state. Banks has yet to field a seri­ous candidate.

The move could also be seen as a show of loy­al­ty to Trump and the con­ser­v­a­tive group Club for Growth, which has often been at odds with Sen­ate Repub­li­can lead­ers. Banks is close to Trump’s eldest son, Don­ald Trump Jr., and has the endorse­ment of Club for Growth.

Some Repub­li­cans con­trast the NRSC’s intend­ed new approach with Mr. Scot­t’s. Con­sid­er his response in the 2022 Col­orado Sen­ate by-election.

Repub­li­can mod­er­ate Joe O’Dare, a con­struc­tion com­pa­ny own­er, was seen by many as the can­di­date who could win the for­mer swing state in a good year for the Repub­li­can party.

How­ev­er, when Scott vis­it­ed the state, he flat­ly refused to endorse O’Dea. Mean­while, O’Dea’s rival state leg­is­la­tors had con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries, prais­ing them for cross­ing police lines in the Capi­tol dur­ing the Jan. 6 riots and strug­gling to raise mon­ey for the campaign.

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