After Midterm Debacle We Must Nominate DeSantis Over Trump In 2024

 

Last night was a disaster for Republicans. Despite a historically unpopular President and record inflation the Democrat national victories included:

• Looking like they’re going to maintain control of the Senate, barring a miracle in Arizona and Georgia
• Electing a vegetable to the Senate over Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania
• Don Bolduc losing by double digits in New Hampshire to Maggie Hassan
• Tiffany Smiley losing by 14 in Washington after polls showed a close race with Patty Murray
• Herschell Walker currently losing to Warnock in Georgia and headed to a runoff where Democrat turnout will be higher
• Republicans barely taking back the House of Representatives
• Kari Lake, who was ahead by 8-10 points in a lot of polls, is currently losing and fighting for her political life in Arizona
• Blake Masters, who was favored going into the night, is losing by 5 points in Arizona
• Allan Fung and Karoline Leavitt got smoked
• Gretchen Whitmer won Michigan by a huge margin
• Doug Mastriano lost Pennsylvania by double digits

In our state elections it was even worse:

• Maura Healey was elected by a bigger margin than I thought (28 %)
• Jay McMahon and Rayla Campbell lost by bigger margins than expected
• Republicans gained no state senate seats and remain at a 37-3 disadvantage
• Republicans lost 2 State Rep seats and are now at a 135-25 disadvantage
• Questions 1 and 4 passed, which increase taxes and allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses
• No Republican congressional candidate got more than 40% of the vote
• Sheriff Tom Hobson, one of the lone decent politicians in the state, lost by 2 %, as did former State Trooper Tim Whelan who lost by 4% for Sheriff in Barnstable County
• State Rep David Laboeuf, a liberal who represents a red district, was arrested 6 months ago with a BAC of .32 while driving on the wrong highway. He won by 18 points.
• Democrats won all 8 Governor’s Council seats, which is the body that confirms all judges in Massachusetts
• Becca Rausch, the State Senator who forced all children to wear masks in school last year, won by 10 points

I like Mass GOP Chair Jim Lyons, but this is a massive failure and he should step down. If you’re not winning elections then you shouldn’t keep your job.

But looking at the bright side there were some positives:

• Ron DeSantis won by 20 points in Florida, became the first Republican to win Miami-Dade, and easily won the Latino vote
• Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke both got smoked (again) in Georgia and Texas
• Adam Laxalt is currently winning in Nevada
• Kari Lake can still win
• Lee Zeldin won 48% of the vote in deep blue New York, and by turning out the vote NY flipped 4 House seats to Republicans
• Republicans have a majority in the house, which means the fun is over for Biden
• The positive results for Democrats ensure that Biden will get nominated again in 2024
• This race gives us permission to rid ourselves of Donald Trump

Let’s be clear – Donald Trump is a huge problem for our side. Here were his thoughts on last night’s disaster:

“America lost the Battle of Midway and Normandy, but at least we got back Guam.”

What a joke. Imagine how disillusioned you would have to be to think it was a great evening for Republicans. He claims that 174 of his endorsements won while only 9 lost. Congratulations – the guy you endorsed in Arkansas who had no shot of losing ended up winning. Here are the major L’s:

• Dr. Oz lost to the weakest candidate in American history
• Tudor Dixon got smoked in Michigan
• Tim Michels, a favorite to win Governor in Wisconsin, lost easily
• Blake Masters doesn’t look like he’s going to win in Arizona

Here are the W’s:

• JD Vance won in Ohio by 7. Ohio is a red state that Republicans should win by double digits (the Republican governor won by 25
• Ted Budd won by 3 in North Carolina, virtually the same margin Republicans always win by in North Carolina
• Ron Johnson won by less than expected in Wisconsin

Basically Republicans won elections they had no chance of losing with our without Trump’s endorsement, and every candidate in a toss up state that he endorsed ended up losing. But yea, GREAT NIGHT!

Brian Kemp, who defied Trump by not overturning the 2020 election and thus didn’t get Trump’s endorsement, won easily in a state Trump lost. Like Glenn Youngkin and DeSantis have show, you can win going away as a Republican without attaching yourself to Trump.

Meanwhile, this is what he said about Don Bolduc losing New Hampshire:

 

Bolduc lost by double digits because he didn’t make his campaign all about election fraud. Trump actually believes this.

I’m officially done with Donald Trump, and will never vote for him again. If he wins the nomination in 2024 I just won’t vote. I voted for him in 2016 and 2020, but I’m not going to contribute to this losing strategy anymore.

Ron DeSantis is the greatest political candidate I’ve seen in my 40 years in this country. It’s unfathomable that he could turn the most contested state in the country into a place where Republicans now win by 20. He did that by making it into an oasis for freedom, and conservatives moved there in droves. (Tennessee and Texas have done similar, but not on that scale.) I did a tweet thread listing all the reasons DeSantis is superior to Trump in 2024:

Here's a list of reasons DeSantis is a better candidate than Trump in 2024.

1. He brands himself as a champion of freedom and an advocate for parents. Trump never did that.

— AidanKearneyTB (@DoctorTurtleboy) November 9, 2022

Trump is overtly jealous of and threatened by DeSantis because we elevated a megalomaniac who believes that he alone can fix America’s problems. He sees how popular and effective DeSantis is, but he can’t nickname DeSantis to death like he’s done with weaker Republicans.

Here’s a sports analogy.

The Philadelphia Eagles fired Doug Peterson 3 years after winning their only Super Bowl, because he stopped winning. Trump won 6 years ago (barely) against the political equivalent of the 85 Patriots. Since then he oversaw a blue wave in the 2018 midterms, lost to a dementia patient in 2020, and promoted losing candidates in what should’ve been a massive red wave in 2022. Yet the Trump ball washers will still support him. We shouldn’t have higher standards for the people leading our football teams than the people leading our party and our country. 

After last night DeSantis is officially the Las Vegas betting favorite to win the Presidency in 2024, and I’m convinced both he and Trump will run.

I know DeSantis will handle it smartly because he’s a brilliant politician, which you need to be to go up against Trump in this party. My fear is that DeSantis would beat Trump in a primary, Trump would refuse to concede and endorse him, and then run as a third party candidate to sabotage the election. If you don’t think he’s that selfish and stubborn then you haven’t been paying attention. I don’t know what the solution to this is, but we have a serious Trump problem that needs to be addressed.

P.S. Look at that family:

A Yale graduate, and veteran with a gorgeous breast cancer surviving wife, and three strapping young children. Seems like a step up from Hunter Biden and Dr. Jill. If that’s not presidential I don’t know what is.