I talked about the most important governor’s races in a post in May but the number of crackpots and conspiracy theorists now running for offices across the country in 2022 makes the fringe now the norm of the Republican base. I shit you not.
August 2nd is the Arizona Republican primary that pits Kari Lake, a Drumpher whom I described in the aforementioned post in May, and Karrin Taylor Robson whom current governor Ducey described as “the real deal: pro-Life, pro-gun, and pro-wall — and she’ll stand up to Joe Biden and the radical Left.” It’s possible that if Lake wins the primary, the democratic candidate (hopefully Katie Hobbs) might stand a better chance of being elected, at least according to an opinion piece in the Washington Post. The columnist Henry Olsen says, Lake cannot avoid this trap (her election denial stance) because of her outspoken and uncompromising views. Imagine what would happen in her first debate with Hobbs. The first thing Hobbs would almost certainly ask is, “Do you think I stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden?” Lake has to say yes, or she will sink her own credibility.
Tom Nichols, writing for the Atlantic, is a self-described Never Trump conservative. In an article last week, Are the Last Rational Republicans in Denial?, he makes the case that millions of Republicans seem to have irreversibly lost touch with reality itself. Almost every other national Republican is either silent or on board with the dark fantasies and deepening paranoia that now rule the GOP. For example, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the relentlessly ambitious third-ranking House Republican, endorsed the developer Carl Paladino for a newly redistricted House seat in the state; in 2021 Paladino said that Adolf Hitler was “the kind of leader we need.” Some House Republicans are frustrated that Stefanik went rogue by endorsing Paladino, meaning only that they are embarrassed but not ashamed.
Politico published an article last May with a handy chart of The 10 governorships most likely to flip parties in 2022. Here’s where voting comes in handy.
Nevada wasn’t mentioned in my post in May…the Drumpf-endorsed Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo beat out the likes of former boxer Joey Gilbert in the Republican primary. Lombardo will be up against current Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. If you live in Nevada, you know what to do.
Also not mentioned was Maryland where term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has to step aside. The primary is coming right up - July 19th. Leading the Democratic pack is Tom Perez who served as labor secretary for President Barack Obama. According to the Washington Post, His sales pitch for governor — a position he’s eyed for years — straddles paradoxes: battle-tested yet idealistic, a candidate with national connections and local roots. He led the Democratic National Committee after Hillary Clinton’s bruising 2016 defeat and was President Barack Obama’s chief civil rights enforcer at the Department of Justice before becoming a Cabinet secretary in charge of the Labor Department. He advocated for immigrant rights, served on the Montgomery County Council and helped steer Maryland through the Great Recession as state labor secretary.
And in Massachusetts, the term-limited Charlie Baker will also be stepping aside. Current Attorney General Maura Healey will be running against either Donald Trump-endorsed former state Rep. Geoff Diehl or businessman Chris Doughty in November.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who lives in these states and emphasize the importance of casting a VOTE this November!
And now…