Tuesday’s vote shows the danger of kissing Trump’s ring
Over the last decade, Republican candidates have routinely ingratiated themselves with the president and his MAGA base. After Tuesday, some must be wondering if they should get off their knees.
After spending a decade of his life running three times for governor of New Jersey, it all ended for Jack Ciattarelli in the most gruesome way Tuesday, with a landslide loss that marks a depressing end to his long political odyssey.
Before you shed a tear on his behalf, though, remember that he is among the many Republicans who sold their souls to the MAGA movement as a path to personal power, even when they knew better. It worked for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and a whole nest of worms like them in Washington.
But that same strategy blew up in Ciattarelli’s face on Tuesday. And there is a hard lesson in his defeat for Republicans in competitive states and districts: Embracing Donald Trump may be necessary to win a primary, but it can be poison in a general election.
You don’t have to look far to find Republicans who are using the same strategy today, and must be wondering if they should get off their knees.
Take Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. For two decades in the state legislature, he was a moderate, like his father, the former governor. He was endorsed by the Sierra Club and locked arms with Democrats to improve urban schools and raise the minimum wage.
But when the Trump tsunami swept across the land, Kean transformed himself into a MAGA loyalist and narrowly won a seat in Congress in 2022 on his second try.
Ciattarelli’s landslide defeat is a warning to Kean. He knows now that if he keeps this up, he could be next. And Democrats see that, too. Several challengers are lining up, and the national party has put Kean on its hit list of 35 target districts. So maybe now, to save his neck, Kean will shape-shift again and break from Trump on a few key votes.
The real test for Democrats will come next year, of course, when they are favored to win control of the House, and can slam the brakes on Trump’s agenda, and open investigations into his corruption and abuses of power. After Tuesday’s romp, you can almost feel that coming.
But even in the coming year, Trump’s grip on his party may finally begin to crack, as blue-state Republicans like Kean digest the magnitude of this Democratic win. Mikie Sherill won by 13 points in New Jersey, her friend Abigail Spanberger won by 15 in Virginia, and the California redistricting referendum passed by 28 points. Trump has lit the Democratic base on fire.
If you are a Republican in a swing district, in any state, those numbers are scary. And given the tiny majority Republicans hold in the House, even a handful of defections could be enough to stop a bill — or to cause other mischief for Trump, like joining Democrats to demand the release of the Epstein files.
In the short run, the vote could increase pressure on Republicans to end the shutdown. They could do that in two ways: change the filibuster rules so they can pass their horrid budget on their own, or negotiate with Democrats by offering them half of what they want. After Tuesday’s vote, Trump posted on social media that the shutdown was “a big factor, negative, for Republicans.”
In the long run, though, this is a big win for democracy itself, a reason to jump up and click your heels. Because the limits of Trump’s power are beginning to show.
The limits of Trump’s power are beginning to show.
As for Ciattarelli, the defeat is deserved. I remember sitting down at a diner with him in 2016, as he geared up for his first campaign, and coming away impressed with his keen intellect and independent thought. He gave Gov. Chris Christie, the leader of his own party, a grade of “D,” and said he would not vote for Trump in the November election that was just two weeks off.
That was back when he labeled Trump a “charlatan” who was “unfit to be president” and a man who “preys on our worst instincts and fears.” He felt compelled to speak up, he said, because “sitting silently and allowing him to embarrass our country is unacceptable.”
It’s chilling to see the damage ambition can do. His embrace of Trump was never the least bit plausible. It made him look like a phony. And to Democrats, at least, it was infuriating. Here’s hoping Republicans like Kean were watching carefully.
Tom Moran is a columnist for Advance Media and a former editorial page editor at the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.