NATIONAL REVIEW
There are many ways to explain Democrats’ pickup of a New York congressional seat in the special election triggered by George Santos’s ouster from office.
The most straightforward is that the district was carried by Joe Biden in 2020 and had been held by Democrat Tom Suozzi for three terms before he gave it up to run for governor, providing the opening for Santos in 2022.
Republican candidate Mazi Pilip was much less well known than Suozzi and had a short period of time to campaign in a race where she was dramatically outspent.
And, to add an additional obstacle, with Republicans counting on strong election-day turnout given their voters’ reluctance to engage in early voting, the New York area was pummeled by a severe snowstorm.
Yet Donald Trump was quick to chime in with an alternate explanation: Pilip was simply not MAGA enough. Trump lashed out on Truth Social, calling Pilip a “very foolish woman” who didn’t endorse him and tried to “straddle the fence.” He added, “MAGA, WHICH IS MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, STAYED HOME – AND IT ALWAYS WILL, UNLESS IT IS TREATED WITH THE RESPECT THAT IT DESERVES. I STAYED OUT OF THE RACE, ‘I WANT TO BE LOVED!’”
A recent NBC poll that received a lot of attention from Republicans because it was so disastrous for Biden also found that 52 percent of Americans had a negative view of Trump. Many of those voters are located in parts of the country that Republicans will need to retake the Senate and build their House majority.
If Trump is going to undermine every candidate who doesn’t show him sufficient “love” or who refuses to endorse his stolen-election claims, Republicans will fail to reach their goals for Congress — even if Trump himself manages to defeat a hobbled Biden.
