There’s plenty of bad news about the Republican campaign in 2024, and I’ve covered it in detail, but objectivity requires that one correctly assess what is going right too, and there’s a lot going right for Republicans right now. First and foremost, there is the massive change at the Republican National Committee with the firing of the utterly useless Ronna McDaniel and the elevation of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump. Next, Donald Trump is in a position where it looks like he is likely to win the presidency if current trends continue…that’s one heck of an if. And, finally, we also seem to be doing pretty well in the Senate races. There are a lot of reasons to be hopeful.
We’re not used to hearing it, but for the last week or so, the RNC has done everything right. The organization has totally failed for seven years under the rule of the dumbest member of the Romney family. People like RedState’s own Jennifer van Laar and superlawyer Harmeet Dhillon would point out how she was wasting tons of money on useless fluff, donors would stop giving, and she would just continue wasting tons of money on useless fluff. She studiously ignored the grassroots and imagined that her role was to go on TV and talk about policy as if anyone cared what some party bureaucrat thought. But now she’s gone, and good riddance.
Her replacements have, astonishingly, done the right things, and they have done it right away. First, they clearcut a bunch of the deadwood at the RNC, firing tons of people. Some characterize that as a purge of unbelievers, but what it really is is a purge of unachievers. Have you seen a lot of election integrity lately? People who do a bad job should be fired. This used to be basic knowledge and understood by Republicans. But apparently, some people think we ought to have a tenure system in our party apparatus. No. Party flacks and functionaries ought to live in perpetual fear that they will be canned should they fail to perform adequately. These mass firings are a great sign. The new leadership has even started to build an election integrity team.
Recommended
There are more great signs. For one thing, Lara Trump has reached out to Scott Pressler. Everybody knows Scott. He’s one of the nicest guys there is, and he’s made his personal crusade to cross-cross the country registering voters. He’s a one-man grassroots tsunami. For some bizarre reason, Ronna McDaniel stubbornly refused to interact with this hero of the base, as if she knew better how to motivate voters than the guy who’s actually out there motivating voters. What the relationship between the new RNC and Scott Pressler will be remains to be seen, but the fact that Lara Trump reached out publicly is a huge indicator that the RNC is going in a different and smarter direction. The next thing the new leaders should do is publicly and, in detail, explain their legal strategy for lawfare victory to the grassroots. That’s the kind of thing that rebuilds the voters’ shattered confidence.
Donors are already taking notice of these changes and are starting to open their wallets again. I’ve written about the disastrous failure to have any kind of lawfare plan in place, and I received enormous feedback from Republicans telling me they are sitting on their hands instead of writing checks because they believe their money would be going to waste. We have much better things to do than spend our dough on Ronna McDaniel’s beauty treatments. There is a lot of cash out there on the sidelines just waiting to come in if the donors see it’s not going to be squandered by grifty mediocrities.
Yeah, our initial response to seeing Lara Trump, the nominee’s daughter-in-law, named as one of the co-chairs was an eyeroll. Would it be more of the kind of lame nepotism that is ruining so much of our country? But Lara Trump has done everything right so far. Her relationship with the president does not disqualify her any more than it qualifies her. Actions speak louder than words, and she’s taking the right actions. We need to support people who are doing the right thing. This is good news.
And there’s good news for her father-in-law, too. You’ll look at the polls, and Trump is ahead in most of the battleground states, and the ones where he is not ahead, that crusty, perverted, senile old weirdo is only barely ahead. Sure, he’s still self-destructive, unable to control his fury at Ron DeSantis for refusing to bow down, but you can yell the enemy is scared when it presses dumb and obvious lies like the “bloodbath” thing. They need to do something because Crusty is bottoming out in the polls.
The Democrats’ plan to frame Donald Trump and steal the election just hasn’t worked. People see the garbage these cases are. They’re a joke. Hell, the tubby moron prosecuting him in Atlanta is barely one step ahead of being disbarred and prosecuted for perjury. Someday, Trump will go on (show) trial in this joke of a New York case and probably get convicted by the 90% communist jury pool, and you know what? That’s going to earn him even more support from patriots who don’t want to see America turned into even more of a banana republic. Americans aren’t idiots – well, most of them. They understand he’s being railroaded. They understand this is a kangaroo court. They understand that the only way Joe Biden could hope to be reelected at this point is to toss his opponent in jail on trumped-up charges. And they are coming around to DJT. The disastrous reign of error of that creepy weirdo currently occupying the Oval Office has changed the election dynamic. For a long time, there was a group of people – like 53% – who just absolutely would not consider voting for Trump. Now, they’ve had to consider the alternative and, you know, Trump wasn’t quite so bad, 401(k)-speaking.
And while the House of Representatives is a real mess, with a significant chance of us losing control, the Senate is just the opposite. We’re playing on a good map and have some great candidates. We already have West Virginia in the bag. In Pennsylvania, we got the right candidate, Dave McCormick, without a primary, and he’s up against a bland Democrat who is being shamed by John Fetterman’s forthright defense of Israel’s right to exist. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown is likely to lose to any of the Republicans. The primary is Tuesday, and the recent cheesy hit on Bernie Moreno seems to be going nowhere. Over in Montana, the ridiculous Matt Rosendale dropped out and is not running for reelection to Congress either. We’ve got a good chance there. Kari Lake is facing some challenges now that Kyrsten Sinema has dropped out, but if she can project the normality and personal warmth that she does in person to the voters, as well as reach out to disaffected Republicans and effectively fight the lawfare battle against the election shenanigans, she’s got a shot in Arizona. Nevada seems to be turning hard for Trump, and the useless Dem dronette in that seat could be at risk too. Hilariously, the Democrats think that the nobody running in Texas against Ted Cruz has a shot, and they’ll waste a lot of money there, which is awesome. Chances are we take the Senate.
Everything isn’t roses. We still have some challenges with election integrity and with making sure Donald Trump doesn’t alienate the people who are now tentatively supporting him – the regime media shutting him out and him not using Twitter are probably the best things that can happen to him. We’re also way behind in the money race. But that said, we have some advantages and have to press them. That’s how you win. And we might just win in 2024.
Look, you need to keep up the fight by joining Townhall VIP right now. You get access to a bunch of great stuff, not the least of which is my extra Wednesday column, my weekly Stream of Kurtiousness videos every Friday, and the Unredacted podcast every Monday! Plus, a bunch of other amazing VIP members only stuff.
Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the newest volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel abou terrorism in America, The Attack!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member