Convenient news about yesterday’s supposition that at least some conservative voters, this time in Nebraska, won’t put up with candidates with dubious sexual reputations:
Donald Trump failed to deliver a victory Tuesday in a Nebraska GOP primary for a gubernatorial candidate accused of groping multiple women, NBC News projects, handing the former president his first loss of this year’s election season.
University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen won the party’s nomination after a heated contest, defeating a state senator and self-funding businessman Charles Herbster, whom Trump campaigned for last week even after eight women — including a Republican state senator — accused Trump’s favored candidate of inappropriately touching or kissing them against their will. [NBC News]
Certainly, I’m speculating that it was the allegations, made plausible by volume and source, that repelled Nebraska conservative voters – or maybe the independents and Democrats flooded the primary as well, although the lack of other primary surprises makes this unlikely.
But that may be the limit at the moment. In West Virginia, the number of seats in the House was reduced by one due to the recent Census, pitting two GOP House members against each other in a primary. Who lost?
Rep. David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.) lost his bid for a seventh term on Tuesday because he voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. His double-digit defeat in West Virginia’s GOP primary, which largely turned on infrastructure spending, best illustrates why President Biden’s governing theory has failed. [WaPo]
This despite McKinley’s TrumpScore was better than his opponent’s! Perhaps West Virginians are behind Nebraska and Michigan in separating from Trump. Or perhaps conservative voters cannot tolerate a particular defect of character, having to do with sexual attitudes, to reject a Trump endorsee.
Time will tell.
