Two-tone results for former US President Donald Trump who, on Tuesday evening, during an important slice of the Republican primaries, lost a faithful ally in Congress – the young representative Madison Cawthorn – but nevertheless managed to make enter the next electoral race of the candidates who have made themselves the promoters of his electoral conspiracy theory, the ” denialists as they are called there.
Nearly a year and a half after the Capitol uprising, the pull of the lie that unproven voter fraud drove the Democrats to power secured Congressman Ted Budd’s victory in Carolina North. The radical conservative won the party’s primary for the November senatorial elections by no less than 30 points over former state governor Pat McCrory.
Dubbed by Trump last February, Ted Budd voted against the certification of the November 2020 vote recognizing Joe Biden’s victory in the last presidential election. He then wrongly and purposely argued that liberal billionaire George Soros was in cahoots with the Dominion Company and its voting machines to steal the election. Accusations that have made the bread and butter of the American conspiratorial movement.
Tuesday, on the waves of CNN, the politician refused to say if he considered that the victory of Joe Biden was legitimate.
The shadow of Donald Trump
“There is still very little evidence that Donald Trump’s influence is diminishing within the Republican Party, summarizes in an interview the political scientist Daniel Bowen, professor at the College of New Jersey. Voters don’t seem to dismiss his false accusations of election theft, and on Tuesday night Pennsylvania delivered a case in point. »
In this state, another ultraconservative, Doug Mastriano, has indeed won the party’s nomination for the next elections for the post of governor. The retired ex-colonel took part in the demonstration on January 6, 2021 aimed at preventing the certification of the presidential vote by the legislative branch; however, he said he did not force his way into the Capitol. He will cross swords with State Attorney General, Democrat Josh Shapiro.
On TwitterMr. Shapiro indicated that “no matter what dangerous extremist we are going to be against in November, the stakes are too high to consider anything other than a victory”, and this, in a state energized by the Republicans in 2020 Supporters of Donald Trump passionately challenged the results of the vote there during the last presidential election.
On Wednesday, the ballot count had still not identified the Republican candidate for the state senatorial in November. In the afternoon, Mehmet Oz, ex-cardiologist who became a figure on the small screen, still had a narrow lead of 0.2 percentage points over financier Dave McCormick. Both aspiring senators supported the election theft theory during their campaigns, so as not to alienate the still-strong “Trumpism” voter base in rural Pennsylvania.
A “powerful mobilizing force”
A survey The Economist-YouGov conducted between May 15-17 found that 68% of Republican voters nationwide believe President Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 ballot. A belief displayed for two years in contradiction with reality and facts.
“Ambitious Republican candidates see their connection to Trump as essential to electoral success,” Bowen said. And they cannot, for this reason, challenge the fallacious theory of conspiracy and electoral fraud”.
This adherence to Donald Trump’s fiction, however, did not pay off for young Representative Madison Cawthorn, one of the Capitol’s most incendiary elected officials, who lost the primary in North Carolina for re-election, and this , facing conservative Chuck Edwards. The 26-year-old politician had however received the support of the ex-president.
A rising star in the Republican Party for two years, Mr. Cawthorn has placed himself at the heart of controversy in recent months after embarrassing revelations about his parties in Washington. Among other things, he claimed to have been invited to orgies and to have seen American right-wing politicians versed in the fight against drugs using cocaine there in front of his eyes. “It was his personal missteps that cost him the support of theestablishment Republican in his state, not the endorsement he received from Donald Trump,” Bowen said.
“Unfortunately, until Republican Party leaders and party-affiliated media personalities publicly and collectively reject the voter fraud narrative, it is going to remain a powerful mobilizing force for Republican voters,” he adds.
Primaries were also held in Idaho, where Donald Trump-backed candidate Janice McGeachin ate the dust against Governor Brad Little, who is running for re-election. In Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul, a strong libertarian Republican figure, also remains in the saddle for next November’s election; after having been a critic of the populist, he became one of his faithful in the Senate.