2022 US Senate Races

Steve Largent is very old and very white.

Rick Scott doubled down on his tax plan in an op-ed for the WSJ just days after McConnell shot it down. It is a gift for Democrats that Scott’s proposals are causing schism within the Republican leadership.

Yeah, Scott is obviously doing everything he can to help himself anticipating his run for the Presidency in 2024. And, he’s so new to the Senate that he doesn’t respect the roles of the leadership team.

“Senator Rick Scott, please mute yourself.” - Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Couldn’t agree more.

In the Keystone State:

And across the country:

I blow hot and cold on Democrats’ hopes of holding the Senate. Republicans have missed out on (or actively chased off) their strongest candidates in states like AZ, GA and NH. But a big enough red wave could be enough to carry some second-tier Republican candidates across the finish line. And so far it looks like they’ll avoid nominating the kind of actively toxic nominees that can sink an otherwise winnable race (e.g. Roy Moore, Todd Akin, Sharon Angle).

I still expect Dems to lose control of the Senate in November, unfortunately, given historical trends, the economy and Biden’s poor polling, but this gives me at least a little hope.

Keep your eye on Missouri, then. Former Governor Eric Grietens, who has enough skeletons to open his own morgue, is looking like he may get the Trump endorsement for Senator. Grietens only avoided being impeached by preemptively resigning.

i believe the democrats have 3 strong senate contenders in pa… out of the 3 fetterman has the most chance of gaining votes in the more red areas of pa…

pa. is an odd commonwealth with 2 large cities (7ish hours apart ground travel) that are really very, very, separate. generally you get a person for commonwealth wide office that is west based (pitt) or east based (phl) they pull a large vote from their area, and concentrate their campaign on the other side.

fetterman is one of the few that is known through pa… he grew up in the south east of pa, and moved around to the middle and west of pa…

lamb is west pa., and kenyatta is east pa…

Pre-Trump I don’t think he’d be able to get through the general election (Trump will obviously get him through the primary if he gets his imprimatur). In current Missouri, I’m not sure any Democrat can win a state-wide election. It was obviously the RINOs and libtards that chase a good man from office.

As a fellow Missourian, I agree 100%. Greitens, if he is nominated, will be at least a 70/30 favorite, probably much more. The other candidates are 90/10. It doesn’t help that there aren’t any Democrats with state-wide recognition running.

I’m more upbeat now. Tie the Republicans to Putin by way of Donnie. Every incumbent Republican needs to be reminded how he voted to approve of the Ukrainian extortion in the first impeachment at every debate and every campaign ad.

The Republicans and their Russian bot friends have already been busy pushing the “But Biden extorted Ukraine too!” narrative, complete with carefully edited video of Biden. If the Dems push their narrative, all the Republicans will see from their media bubble is the Biden video.

My, but this is all getting rather complicated for Republicans.

It’s going to be like scorpions in a bowl.

I’m lovin’ it.

Grieten’s ex-wife has submitted a sworn affidavit in their custody dispute detailing specific incidents of abuse by him against her and their children (ages 1 and 3 at the time). The affidavit details some pretty stomach churning allegations of physical and emotional abuse. He (via his campaign spokesperson) is of course calling her a liar and manipulator with a political agenda.

One would assume that a candidate who previously resigned for extremely sketchy behavior would no longer get the benefit of the doubt. Especially since the GOP isn’t hurting for candidates with state-wide name recognition and conservative bona fides. I have to think at the very least this will keep Trump from endorsing him (too risky to Trump).

More on that: Ex-wife accuses top Missouri GOP Senate candidate of abuse

These accusations needed to come out after Grieten’s wins the primary.

It’ll be interesting. A couple of factors to bear in mind: in Missouri, the candidate who gets the most votes in the primary wins, even if they don’t get a majority of votes (i.e. no runoff election). And primaries are open, meaning voters can participate in whichever primary they choose.

With numerous Republican candidates in the race, and particularly if Democrats organize to vote for Greitens in the primary, you could see him pull off a win with say 30% of the vote. This is essentially what happened with Todd Akin in 2012 and that worked out beautifully for Democrats.