It looks like the Minnesota GOP is running scared, because they have decided not to acknowledge there might be challengers to the great and hallowed leader:
President Donald Trump will be the only choice on the ballot in Minnesota’s Republican presidential primary, even though he’s not the only candidate.
The state Republican Party has decided voters won’t have any alternatives.
Its chairwoman, Jennifer Carnahan, sent a letter to the Minnesota Secretary of State on Oct. 24 outlining the party’s “determination of candidates” for the March 3 Republican primary ballot. Trump is the only name listed.
Absent are three other Republicans who, while long shots, are prominent political names running active campaigns: former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois.
“The idea that we’re taking our cues from North Korea or the Soviet Union in terms of voter access and voter participation just seems weird to me,” Sanford said in an interview Thursday. Minnesota voters are the biggest losers in the party decision, he said, adding that he suspects that state party leaders are worried a contested primary would show Trump isn’t as popular as he claims. [StarTribune]
I think Sanford’s comments are particularly stinging. For a party which ostensibly champions personal freedoms and liberty, this eviction of Trump intra-party rivals from the primary ballot as if they don’t exist suggests worry, even panic by local Party leaders that, given a choice, the local base may not be so rabidly pro-Trump as they’d like.
Of course, given how Trump has chosen to treat entities which aren’t rabidly pro-Trump, such as, say, California, they may be justified, particularly if they’re the sort who desperately seek the approval of authority figures. And I’m not just being snarky here: the entire toxic culture of team politics does encourage such a mind-set. If the local higher muckety-mucks are predisposed to such an authoritarian atmosphere, they may – probably did – have jumped as high as possible when a Trump campaign minion squawked at them to clear the primary table for Trump.
It’s a pity they don’t understand the advantages of an open competition, particularly seeing as they’re the party of free enterprise. See, now that’s just snark.
Still …
In 2016, Trump finished third in Minnesota’s Republican presidential caucus, trailing Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. In the general election, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson — a former Republican governor of New Mexico who had Weld as his running mate — got 4% of the vote. Trump lost the state to Hillary Clinton by less than 2%.
A third place finish again would make Trump look awful, wouldn’t it? And chill the chances of advancement by local officials. Tsk.
But as Minnesota farmers reel not only from the trade wars, but from Ag Secretary Perdue running around advising them that the future is Big Ag, I suspect, if Trump even runs again, the Democratic margin of victory will be closer to 15 points. Minnesotans have seen an amateur at work in the national arena, and by and large I suspect they’ll either vote Democratic or stay home – and lie to pollsters who call about the 2016 election. OK, so I’m optimistic – still, closer to 10 points.
