Thursday 10 November 2022 07:26 PM Democrats reap benefits of $50million hey spent to boost Republicans who ... trends now
Dumping millions to boost far-right election-denying candidates in GOP primaries whom they perceived as easier to beat in general elections seems to have paid off for liberals, even as many criticized the move as anti-democratic.
This year Democratic groups launched a risky new strategy pouring over $50 million into ads boosting 13 Republican candidates they banked on being able to beat in a general election. Individual Democratic candidates forked over tens of millions more. The scheme drew criticism as Democrats could have used the funds to defend a narrow majority, and the potential that the far-right candidates they boosted could actually come to power.
But in a number of races their efforts were vindicated, with Republicans now looking at a more narrow majority than they had hoped for and a Senate whose majority is yet undecided.
Here are the biggest payoffs of the liberal offense:
Michigan -- Trump-backed John Gibbs loses to Democrat Hillary Scholten after ousting Rep. Peter Meijer in a primary
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the party's House campaign arm, drew ire when it funneled $2.4 million into Trump-backed John Gibbs to beat out the more bipartisan, policy-focused Republican Rep. Peter Meijer in a West Michigan district.
'We thought he was an easier candidate and he has proven to be,' DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney, who lost his own bid for re-election, said last week. 'Because he's a nut.'
While the DCCC may have had a hand in winning these six races, they paid the price of their chairman - Maloney lost to Republican Mike Lawler after taking heat for the Democrats' strategy, as well as a number of other controversies.
Trump also waded into the race on behalf of Gibbs, with a vengeance against Meijer for voting to impeach him after Jan. 6.
On Tuesday Hillary Scholten beat out Gibbs 55-42 percent.
In a Substack post, Meijer eviscerated Democrats for their hand in the race and highlighted his own vote with them against Trump over January 6.
'The Democrats are justifying this political jiu-jitsu by making the argument that politics is a tough business. I don't disagree. But that toughness is bound by certain moral limits: Those who participated in the attack on the Capitol, for example, clearly fall outside those limits,' Meijer wrote. 'But over the course of the midterms, Democrats seem to have forgotten just where those limits lie.'
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the party's House campaign arm, drew ire when it funneled $2.4 million into Trump-backed John Gibbs
In a primary Gibbs beat out the more bipartisan, policy-focused Republican Rep. Peter Meijer in a West Michigan district
New Hampshire Senate race — Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) beats out Trump-backed Army Gen. Don Bolduc
Trump-backed retired Army General Don Bolduc launched to the front of the primary after the Democratic Senate Majority PAC spent $3.1 million on his race. Democrats then spent nearly the same amount, $3.3 million, defending their incumbent, Sen. Maggie Hassan, in the general election as they turned on Bolduc and blasted him for his far-right views.
Hassan held onto her seat by nine points, 53.4 to 44.7 percent.
Trump then claimed that Bolduc lost because he had wavered on his longstanding promotion of Trump's election fraud claims.
'Don Bolduc was a very
