I recently watched a bad episode of a bad sitcom, which focused on an extremely unpleasant but popular teenager who ran for student body president to sabotage her ex-boyfriend’s chances of winning the election. His campaign focused on detailed plans to improve internet access and school lunches, while hers was based on vitriol, lies, and personal attacks. When he figured out she was only running to get back at him, he begged her to drop out. Think of the school, not just yourself, he implored. She ignored him and won the election, only to realize immediately that she had zero interest in actually doing the job.
The episode aired in 2005, but it felt eerily relevant to me as we head into the first elections of 2022. I’d like to tell you real life won’t play out this way, but I can’t. If I’ve learned anything from the last six years, it’s that when it comes to elections, anything can — and often does — happen.
The Big Takeaway
Presidential contests tend to get the most attention, but America holds elections all the time. Most are state and local races, which attract far fewer voters than federal elections even though they arguably have larger impacts on people’s everyday lives. (That sound you just heard was a collective heavy sigh from every state and local government reporter in the country.) This is perhaps the most serious casualty of the increasing nationalization of our politics, which has turned basically every election into a referendum on whoever currently occupies the White House. Even at the hyperlocal level, party trumps everything.
This isn’t a new trend, though it’s accelerated in recent years, thanks mostly to Donald Trump. Few presidents made endorsements in state or local races prior to 2016, when then-President Barack Obama threw his weight behind 161 candidates — an “unprecedented engagement all the way down-ballot for any president,” per Politico.
Trump built on that precedent, endorsing more than 300 candidates during his one-term presidency. He hasn’t stopped since. This year alone, he’s endorsed 144 candidates, from gubernatorial and state legislative hopefuls to people running for comptroller, public lands commissioner and secretary of state. Trump’s continued presence on the campaign trail — and his tendency to brag about his endorsement winning streak — prompted pundits to frame this year’s contests as a referendum on his influence within the Republican Party.
Trump’s embraced that narrative, spending months hosting rallies across the country to drum up support for his preferred candidates. In Nebraska on Sunday, he told more than 3,000 supporters to vote for Charles Herbster, a businessman who’s continuing his gubernatorial campaign after denying sexual assault allegations from eight women.
Herbster is “the last person to do any of this stuff,” Trump told the crowd. “He’s innocent of these despicable charges.”
Herbster, who targeted one of his accusers in a campaign ad, took the stage to criticize the Nebraska “political establishment,” which he’d previously accused of helping to expose the groping allegations, per the Nebraska Examiner.
“They’re trying to scare me out of the race,” he said. “It’s not going to work.”
But the bulk of the rally focused on Trump. He spent most of the evening complaining about the 2020 election, which he continues to insist was stolen from him despite ample evidence that he actually just lost. Still, the endorsement alone was enough for some audience members. One voter said he might support Herbster in the election, while two others told the Examiner they’d vote for him simply because Trump told them to.
GOP candidates in Ohio’s U.S. Senate primary scrambled to recalibrate their campaign messages after Trump endorsed J.D. Vance (or whatever his name is) over the objection of prominent state Republicans. At a church event on Saturday, former state treasurer Josh Mandel shifted the focus of his stump speech from Trump and guns to God and culture wars, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.
He claimed that “boys are boys and girls are girls.” He slammed critical race theory by quoting part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. He criticized abortion rights, said there’s no separation between church and state, and touted his support for using public education dollars to finance private school tuition, a state-level policy he’d have zero influence over as a U.S. senator.
Primary chaos is also swirling in Georgia, where early voting kicked off Monday for the first time since state lawmakers approved sweeping changes to election policy, per the Georgia Recorder. Activists said those changes, including new deadlines for provisional ballots and restrictions on drop boxes, will make it more difficult for marginalized populations to vote.
The policy shift comes amid an ongoing shortage of poll workers, which began in 2020 when elderly volunteers opted out due to pandemic-related health risks. Recruitment became even more difficult after the election, when poll workers across the state fielded threats from Trump supporters who believed votes had somehow been tampered with or destroyed.
The shortage could make it difficult to implement some of the changes, particularly a new policy that discredits any provisional ballot cast at the wrong polling place before 5 p.m. on Election Day. Proponents of that measure said it gives voters a chance to vote for every candidate on the ballot, but opponents said it just cuts into voting time and complicates poll workers’ duties.
“I think part of the problem with this law in particular is just how unnecessarily complex a rule that changes at five o’clock on Election Day is,” said Saira Amir Draper, a co-founder of Power the Vote and a Democratic candidate for the Georgia House.
I approve these messages: Fractured Missouri Senate enters final two weeks of the legislative session … (Minnesota) A senator was promoted by a nonprofit, then proposed $500,000 in state funding for it … (New Mexico) Republicans inflate curricula fears at education hearing … Jan. 6 panel asks Andy Biggs, other GOP members of the U.S. House to cooperate in probe
From the Newsrooms
- (Colorado) Pueblo had strong voices in Capitol leadership. Now it must adjust to their absence.
- Fentanyl an increasing barrier to New Jersey battling its opioid crisis
- Tennessee’s community oversight boards restricted by state laws
- More people evacuated from near two largest wildfires burning in (New Mexico)
- Few mask lawsuits remain as Missouri AG asks legislature to clarify law behind legal blitz
One Last Thing
Creepy dolls keep washing up on Texas beaches. “There’s a lot of nightmares out there,” estuary researchers said helpfully. I am fine!
This edition of the Evening Wrap published on May 2, 2022. Subscribe here.
