Donald Trump is being largely blamed for the midterm red wave that never happened, with Republican strategists pinning the party’s underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms on his selection of ‘flawed’ candidates.
Trump endorsed some 300 candidates, held 30 rallies and raised millions of dollars for his ‘army’ of candidates. It was supposed to be the amuse-bouche for a Presidential run, intended to set him up for a sweeping 2024 success.
But overnight, many of Trump’s chosen candidates crashed and burned.
Five of his chosen candidates – Bo Hines (North Carolina’s 13th District), Sandy Smith (North Carolina’s 1st District), Mehmet Oz (Pennsylvania State Senate) and Tim Michels (Wisconsin Gubernatorial Race) and Lee Zeldin (New York Gubernatorial race) – all lost.
Early analysis also shows that in counties with Trump-backed candidates, the Republican vote share increased by just 1.3 percent compared with 6.9 percent in counties where he wasn’t involved in the race.
