Last week, the liberal Twitterati were all worked up about the election results in Texas. With Susan Wright, the widow of former Rep. Ron Wright, going against Jake Elzey, who lost the election to Wright back in the 2018 runoff. What made the runoff in a solid Republican district like catnip to political twitter was that Wright had gotten a late endorsement from Donald Trump.
When all votes were tallied up, Elzey won, and the political commenters went crazy with delight. Trump, they said was done.
Trump LOSES his first big test at the ballot box on a abysmally low turnout. Not only couldn't he persuade Repubs to back Wright, he couldn't get people enthused enough to vote at all. His influence is a mile wide and an inch deep.
17/x
— Henry Olsen (@henryolsenEPPC) July 28, 2021
There were many things at play in that election, but rejecting Trump was not among them. Larry Sabato, a true NeverTrump, pointed out that Democrat precincts underperformed in the election, probably because of no Democrat being on the ballot, and the myth spread that Dems had defeated Trump seems to be unsupportable by the real facts.
Last night we had yet another key data point in the “Trump is done”: narrative to think about.
GOPer Steve Stivers had Ohio’s 15th District since the 2011 election. He resigned in May of this year to become president of the Chamber of Commerce in the state. This sparked a needed special election eventually involving 11 people. Stivers was a Trump-friendly establishment GOPer and presented Trump with a golden opportunity to put a populist in the seat and help the overall makeup of the Republican House Caucus.
For those hoping to witness Trump go away, the night was a complete disappointment.
Two vital points, conservatives were fired up and gave the largest primary turnout in that district’s history. The Dems stayed home and had less than one-half the amount of votes one would expect in a Dem primary in this particular district.
Congratulations, Mike Carey on your big victory in Ohio!
It’s clear which side is energized about this race! Republicans turned out nearly 3 to 1 compared to Democrats in OH-15.
— Ronna McDaniel (@RonnaMcDaniel) August 4, 2021
The total early vote, including the Dem primary, was 10,537. That means the GOP vote will be absurdly, comically, low unless Election Day voting is really large.
The 4 state legislators are:
Sen. Stephanie Kunze
Sen. Bob Peterson
Rep. Jeff LaRe
former Rep. Ron Hood2/x
— Henry Olsen (@henryolsenEPPC) August 3, 2021
Steve Stivers spent a decent amount of money on Jeff LaRe and all it got him was a distant second place result https://t.co/60wclpWTus pic.twitter.com/1ajWkjOVOK
— Drew Savicki 🦇👻🧛♂️🎃 (@DrewSav) August 4, 2021
Carey won 11 of 12 counties that were inside the district. And President Trump took a much-deserved victory lap.
NEW!
"Great Republican win for Mike Carey. Big numbers! Thank you to Ohio and all of our wonderful American patriots. Congratulations to Mike and his family. He will never let you down!" – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/KMnPwDkrHd
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) August 4, 2021
The difference between the OH-15 and TX-6 elections are huge. Trump having endorsed Carey some months before.
The Trump organization put in $350,000 into this race. This race gave voters a certain line between the way things used to be and how they might be; it did not have anything to do with a sympathy vote for a widow.
Author: Scott Dowdy
