Democrats have been trying to push infighting in the Republican Party as a reason why voters should side with them come the all-important November elections.
However, while all this is going on, there’s plenty of disarray and infighting happening within the Democrats, too — especially in key battleground states such as California, New Jersey and Maryland.
Senior Democrats have been pushing to dispatch challengers to the candidates they prefer in both Michigan and Texas, though they have other things to deal with as well.
Luckily for Democrats, Representative Colin Allred was able to avoid having to go to a runoff in late May, as he defeated state Senator Roland Gutierrez by a margin of 58.8% to 16.7% on Super Tuesday. What that will allow him to do is focus the next eight months squarely on hammering incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Democrats also won another key battle in California, where Democratic Representative Adam Schiff will face off against Republican Steve Garvey for the Senate seat previously held by Dianne Feinstein.
Liberals as a whole much preferred to have one of their candidates face off against Garvey, rather than having two Democrats face off against each other — which is possible under California’s primary rules. In that scenario, Democrats would have had to spend heavily even though there wouldn’t have been a Republican on the ballot.
Maryland could be shaping up as the most important primary in the Senate for Democrats. That’s because former Republican Governor Larry Hogan surprisingly announced that he would be running for the seat.
On the Democratic side, Representative David Trone will face off against Angela Alsobrooks, a Prince George’s County executive, in the May 14 primary.
Trone is a wealthy owner of Total Wine and More, while Alsobrooks would be the first black woman from Maryland to be a senator, and one of only a few to ever serve in Congress’ upper chamber.
Come November, New Jersey could prove to be the state that hurts Democrats the most. There, Representative Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, the state’s first lady, are going neck-and-neck over the seat currently held by incumbent Senator Bob Menendez.
For his part, Menendez hasn’t announced whether he will run for re-election, but he is under multiple indictments for crimes.
Kim said that if voters were to side with Murphy in the state’s primary, it could hand the seat over to Republicans. As he said:
“We have such a razor-thin majority right now and a lot of defense to be played in 2024. We should not do anything that puts a seat in jeopardy.”
Kim was referring to the fact that Murphy — while serving as first lady in the governor’s mansion — has no direct electoral experience herself.
The GOP has several challenges of its own, including races in Michigan and Ohio, and also maybe Nevada and Wisconsin — states that Democrats are looking to as very crucial to them retaining power in the upper chamber.
