CNN warns of possible backlash against Democrats' strategy to back Trump GOP candidates in midterms
Democrats recently spent $450,000 on ads to boost a Trump-endorsed candidate in Michigan
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrats are concerned that their party’s strategy to back Trump GOP candidates ahead of the midterms could have "serious consequences" and cause backlash, according to a new CNN piece.
Focusing on the Michigan’s battleground 3rd congressional district, CNN writers Eric Bradner, Omar Jimenez, and Donald Judd reported that Democratic-leaning voters are fretting over the possibility that the strategy could leave them with an election-denying Republican in Congress.
Republican candidate John Gibbs, who has previously backed former President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election, narrowly defeated Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., in their primary after Democrats spent nearly half a million dollars on television advertisements labeling Meijer as "too conservative."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Yet Meijer, well-known in the community with support from some Democrats, was seeking a second term in office and had previously voted to impeach Trump. A number of residents of the district disagreed with the tactic in comments to CNN, but expressed enthusiasm for Hillary Scholten, the Democrat facing Gibbs in the upcoming election.
"It bothered me, and I know it bothered others," a retired teacher and former Grand Rapids city commissioner told the network.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They had to make some choices, some very difficult choices, and I disagree with that," another retired teacher said of the strategy. "But I guess I’m not the one to make decisions, and we just want Hillary to do well in the polls."
Meijer himself also openly disagreed with Democrats’ involvement in the election during an interview with CNN. Days after the election, he said the strategy showed "there is no incentive to try to be a productive member" of Congress while working in Washington.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Any party that pretends to have a set of principles, any party that pretends to have a set of values and that comes in and boosts exactly the same type of candidate that they claim is… a threat to democracy, don’t expect to be able to hold on to that sense of self-righteousness and sanctimony," Meijer added.
Scholten herself has admitted she does not believe Gibbs is necessarily easier to defeat than Meijer would have been, further calling into question the tactical nature of the Democrats’ strategy.
The CNN article also noted that while Democratic voters fretted about the potential consequences of propping up Gibbs, Republican voters believed he was the better candidate, further eroding Scholten’s chance of victory. The network’s groundwork in the district revealed that some Republican voters had distanced themselves from Meijer over his split with Trump.
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Multiple Democratic campaign groups have spent more than $46 million to boost candidates who support the former president in primary races across the U.S. Some Democrats have been highly critical of the move.
In August, 35 former Democratic lawmakers panned the party’s strategy to back Trump candidates, penned by former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"These destructive primary tactics aim to elevate Republican candidates who Democrats hope they can more easily beat in November," the letter read. "But it is risky and unethical to promote any candidate whose campaign is based on eroding trust in our elections. We must stop this practice, and stop today."