“It’s Crazy Like a Fox”: Why Democrats Have Poured Millions Into a Risky Strategy Elevating MAGA Republicans

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Democrats have been promoting far-right candidates to win Republican primaries—but the move is as risky as it is savvy. “They did this in 2016,” says one strategist. “And how did that turn out?”

to seize voting machines in the month after the 2020 presidential election, and he pals around with QAnon supporters. During the January 6 insurrection, as rioters closed in onCox tweeted that the vice president was a “traitor.” And last Tuesday night, Cox won the Republican nomination for governor of Maryland with the help of more than $1 million in TV ads from…Democrats?

It has already been a very strange few years in American politics, but this fall’s elections will provide the high-stakes test of a seemingly counterintuitive strategy, one that will prove to be either evil genius or incredibly stupid. Democrats—desperate to energize midterm voters who are weary of inflation, COVID, and, well, Democrats—are spending time and money elevating extremist Republican candidates.

’s defeat of Todd Akin in a Missouri U.S. Senate race. But that was back in 2012, in a political atmosphere that looks downright quaint compared to today’s hyperpolarization. “It’s been tried many times. It’s worked very few times,” saysa national Democratic strategist who is based in New York. “It is dangerous to play for a certain candidate and then celebrate when they win, particularly when there’s a late primary season going into the general.

The dynamics of individual races vary, of course, but what’s connecting and driving the playing-with-fire strategy is a pervasive pessimism. For all the sound logic of maneuvering to run against a weaker opponent, there’s also a dispiriting sense that without some nutjob or menacing villain on the other side, Democratic candidates can’t win on their own. “I watch focus groups, and Democratic voters are totally checked out and depressed,” one strategist says.

Instead of righteous indignation, it’s more like righteous resignation. So anything that would light a fire under Democrats in November is welcome.”

 

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