On Tuesday night, three candidates endorsed by Donald Trump lost Republican primaries in Florida and Wyoming. The same thing happened to him earlier this month, in Minnesota, Michigan and Tennessee.
Also on Tuesday, Democrat Brandon Dukes flipped from red to blue a Pennsylvania State House seat that Trump won by 19 points two years ago.
Meanwhile, conservative activists online are spewing vitriol at Senate Republicans, who left town a couple weeks ago without passing either the SAVE Act or Trump’s desired increase in military spending. Senate Republicans did, however, join with Democrats to pass a government funding bill that restricts Donald Trump’s power to cancel federal grants for political reasons.
This is what is looks like when Donald Trump’s approval rating, which is now a net negative 20 points, passes a tipping point, and he begins to lose power. His endorsed candidates start to lose Republican primaries. Democrats start to flip deep red seats. Conservative activists start to turn on Republican members of Congress, who themselves begin to ignore Trump’s legislative demands while joining with Democrats to rein Trump in.
Moments like these don’t come around very often, but when they do things that were once seemingly impossible begin to become realistic for Democrats to achieve.
This is why I believe we should take seriously the polls showing Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas, within striking distance of incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. Trump won Kansas by 16 points two year ago, which is a lot. However, it’s less than the margin Trump won the Pennsylvania State House district that Brandon Dukes flipped on Tuesday. It is also less than the 20 points that Trump is underwater in his national approval rating.
Adam Hamilton is not your average Democratic nominee. He is the senior pastor of the largest church in Kansas, a Methodist congregation called Resurrection, with an average weekly attendance of 25,000. Hamilton describes himself as moderate, and has significantly outraised Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, $3.1 million to $600,000. He can win in Kansas in a political environment like this, just like Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly won in Kansas eight years ago during the first midterm election when Trump was in office.
I have put together an ActBlue page where you can split a donation between Rev. Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas, and Bowers Kerbel Media, the two-person, reader-supported, pro-democracy organization that runs Wolves and Sheep and the Bowers News Media news and activism email list.
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