Mounting losses show limits of Donald Trump’s power
Donald Trump opened May by lifting a trailing Senate candidate in Ohio to the Republican nomination, seemingly cementing the former president’s kingmaker status before another possible White House run. He’s ending the month, however, stinging from a string of defeats that suggests a diminishing stature. Trump faced a series of setbacks in Tuesday’s primary elections as voters rejected his efforts to unseat two top targets for retribution: Georgia’s Republican governor and secretary of state, both of whom had rebuffed Trump’s extraordinary pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. But the magnitude of defeat in the governor’s race — more than 50 percentage points — was especially stunning and raised questions about whether Republican voters are beginning to move on from Trump. Nearly six years after the one-time reality television star launched what seemed to be an improbable campaign for the White House, the “Make America Great Again” movement Trump helmed isn’t going anywhere. But voters are increasingly vocal in saying that the party’s future is about more than Trump. “I like Trump a lot, but Trump is in the past,” said David Butler of Woodstock, Georgia, who voted for Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday and said Trump’s endorsements had “no” impact “whatsoever” on his thinking. It was the same for Will Parbhoo, a 22-year-old dental assistant who also voted for Kemp. “I’m not really a Trumper,” he said after voting. “I didn’t like him to begin with. With all the election stuff, I was like, ‘Dude, move on.’” One thing Parbhoo liked about the current governor? “Kemp is focused on Georgia,” he said. Trump sought to play down the losses by his favored candidates, saying on his social media platform Wednesday that he had a “very big and successful evening of political Endorsements” and insisting some races “were not possible to win.” Still, the pattern of high-profile defeats is hard to ignore. After JD Vance vaulted from third to first place following Trump’s late-stage endorsement in the Ohio Senate primary, the dynamics took a turn. Trump’s pick in Nebraska’s primary for governor, Charles Herbster, lost his race after allegations surfaced that he had groped women. In Idaho a week later, the governor beat a Trump-backed challenger. In North Carolina, voters rebuffed Trump’s plea to give a scandal-plagued congressman a second chance. And in Pennsylvania, a marquee Senate primary featuring Trump-endorsed celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz remains too close to call. But his biggest upset was in Georgia, a crucial swing state, where former Sen. David Perdue, whom Trump had lobbied to run and helped clear the field for, lost to Kemp. The governor was among Trump’s top targets after he refused to overturn the results of the 2020 White House election in his state. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who defied Trump’s call to “find” the votes to change the outcome two years ago — a call that is now under investigation — also won his party’s nomination. Attorney General Chris Carr and Insurance Commissioner John King — all opposed by Trump — were also successful in their primaires. In Alabama, Rep. Mo Brooks, whose Senate endorsement Trump rescinded as he struggled to gain traction, made it to a runoff, having gained support after Trump dropped him. Trump has endorsed in nearly 200 races, from governor to county commissioner, often inserting himself into contests that aren’t particularly competitive and helping bolster his compilation of wins. Some of his work, even in races with multiple candidates, has paid off. His early support helped football great Herschel Walker and Rep. Ted Budd sail to their respective Senate primary nominations in Georgia and North Carolina. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former press secretary, easily won the GOP nomination for governor in Arkansas. And even in Georgia, all of the candidates Trump endorsed in open races won or will head to runoffs. Some allies say Trump’s endorsement tally is a poor measure of his influence, even if Trump constantly promotes that record. They argue that voters may support the former president and be eager for him to run again but may not be persuaded by his selections, especially in races with governors such as Kemp, who have long histories with voters. And even without Trump on the ballot, the party has been transformed in Trump’s image, with candidates adopting his “America First” platform, mimicking his tactics, and parroting his lies about a stolen election. But with Trump out of office and relegated to posting on his own social media platform, other voices are beginning to fill the void. Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the most-watched personality on cable television, has become a driving ideological force in the party. Republicans such as the conspiracy-embracing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won her party’s nomination for reelection Tuesday, have taken up his mantle in Washington. Meanwhile, potential presidential rivals to Trump are waiting in the wings for 2024. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been distancing himself from Trump, rallied with Kemp in suburban Atlanta on Monday evening and told the crowd that “elections are about the future” — an implicit knock on his former boss. Trump has also spawned a new generation of candidates who have channeled his “MAGA” brand but who have done so independent of his support and see themselves as its next iteration. “MAGA doesn’t belong to him,” Kathy Barnette, the Pennsylvania Senate candidate whose late-stage surge stunned party insiders, said in an interview. “Trump coined the word. He does not own it.” While the left, she said, may see the “MAGA movement” as a “cult of Trump voters,” she said it goes far beyond one man. She argued that Trump had succeeded in 2016 because he aligned himself with voters’ concerns and said out loud what people were already thinking, particularly on immigration. She said she tried in her race to do the same. “I do believe Trump has an important voice still,” she added, but “he needs to get better advisers, and in addition to that, he needs to do better himself in remembering why we aligned with him. And it wasn’t because we were aligning with his
Iowa a carnival of democracy for media — until it went sour
Unlike in past election cycles, Iowa seemed to sneak up on television viewers, despite nearly a year’s worth of debates and campaigning.
Martha Roby: Education secretary must enforce new law
Newly confirmed Secretary of Education John King came to Capitol Hill this week to testify in our Appropriations budget hearing. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, and specifically the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Education budget, this hearing provided me a good opportunity to press the secretary to make sure he and his staff adhere to the new education law that forbids federal coercion on state education policy. You may remember that late last year Congress passed and the president signed a new education law to finally replace the problematic “No Child Left Behind.” The nation’s new education law returns the decision-making back to state and local governments where it belongs. The Wall Street Journal calls the new law “the largest devolution of federal control to the states in a quarter-century.” I’m proud to say the nation’s new education law also contains a provision I introduced and championed that strictly prohibits the Secretary of Education or his agents from using funding grants or special regulation waivers to influence state education policy. For too long, the U.S. Department of Education has exercised undue influence over education policy decisions that are made at the state and local level. The department developed the bad habit of making valuable funding grants or coveted regulation waivers contingent on whether or not a state adopted its “pet” policies. Not only did this behavior flout the appropriate role of the federal government, it also worked to corrode trust in public education at the state and local level. Count me among those who believe states should set high standards and adopt a rigorous curriculum designed to help students build the skills they need to succeed. While collaboration can add value in policymaking, heavy-handed coercion from the federal government in the process is unwelcome and inherently dubious. Parents, teachers and administrators are rightfully wary about having state education policy dictated by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., who have never set foot in an Alabama classroom. Now that kind of federal coercion is against the law, and at this week’s Appropriations hearing, I wanted to make sure Secretary King is committed to following that law. Old habits die hard, I told him. It isn’t hard to imagine federal bureaucrats ignoring the new law and continuing with business as usual. I was pleased to hear Secretary King say and reiterate that he and his staff will do “exactly” what the law requires. Knowing that policymakers often must determine the “intent of Congress,” I made clear to Secretary King that, as the Member of Congress who introduced and championed this provision of law, the intention is to stop once and for all the inappropriate federal coercion in state education decisions. I appreciate Secretary King appearing before our committee and committing to enforcing the new law. It is important that he and others at the Department of Education know that Congress is watching and that we are serious about returning education control back to states and local governments. • • • Martha Roby represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband, Riley, and their two children.
