Early voting will be underway in almost half the country within a week and a new development suggests the GOP might be in more trouble than we thought. Florida has been solid red for decades now but like Texas the tide might be a blue shade this year. The GOP’s Byron Donalds who earlier this year seemed destined to fail upwards (happens a lot with Republicans) into the Governor’s Mansion is holding off on measure for new drapes. He’s unsure enough that he’s scrubbed mention of Donald Trump from his campaign website. Yup, all of a sudden Byron Donalds is trying to convince voters he barely knows who Trump is!
I find this both funny as hell but also encouraging. (And yes it would be funny to see Donalds fall victim to ETTD Syndrome) Donalds isn’t the only Florida GOPer to suddenly want as much distance as possible from Trump. Last week Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar put out an ad ripping the Trump administration on immigration/ICE policy. Ok, so she’s a GOP Congress Critter who is playing to her district but Donalds is running for statewide office. It’s certain she got an angry call from Trump, or more likely Susie Wiles because she kind of softened her rhetoric.
Byron Donalds found himself thrust into the spotlight but over time mostly faded away except down in Florida. Hell, before the Speaker election fiasco most people in freaking Florida had never heard of him. But he got name recognition out of it and at least in his home state getting noticed stuck. However as we learn from The Guardian we now have Donalds getting noticed and not just in Florida (where it’s going to matter most) but more importantly not in a good way for Trump. Yes, people have and will continue to notice his scrubbing of all things Trump from his campaign:
Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor in November’s US midterm elections, launched an updated campaign website on Tuesday that was stripped of almost every mention of Trump and removed a photograph of the congressman and his wife, Erika, posing with the president, the Miami Herald reported.
Until now, Donalds has proudly touted his close ties with the president, running a Republican primary campaign themed largely on Trump’s endorsement, and displaying a large banner on his website advertising his support.
It doesn’t take a sophisticated political operative to understand why Donalds doesn’t want voters to associate him with Trump. I suspect that like many other GOP candidates Donalds spent the summer hoping Trump would find a way out of his disastrous war, and if not rescind some of his dumbass tariffs at least not go creating new ones. Or shooting off his fat orange mouth and riling up other countries who’ve been targeted and have hit back. Also, like Salazar her had to be concerned with the immigration issue. About the only thing in his favor has been the stronger than normal El Nino keeping major Atlantic storms out to sea and Florida residents who used to be able to count on FEMA being pissed over not getting the same help they used to get.
Trump’s approval tanked and at this point it’s clear it won’t rebound. Worse, he’s gone and told voters to pretend he’s on the ballot and guess what? Those same voters Trump needs to hang on to Congress vote at the same time for state level candidates too! Both for Congress and state candidates running for top state offices the campaigns do their own internal polling and it’s a safe bet their internals are showing what national polling outfits are showing – that Trump is dragging down Republicans all over the country. Even in his adopted state of Florida.
Let’s not forget that before that spectacle where the House GOP couldn’t get its act together and elect a Speaker when the current Congress convened almost no one outside of his Congressional District knew the name Byron Donalds. But in those early votes he was put forth as the ‘placeholder’ some could vote for while House Republicans. He decided to try and capitalize on his proverbial fifteen minutes and run for higher office – Governor of Florida. Accordingly he made the pilgrimage to Mar A Lago (one of many) to kiss the ring – specifically the one surrounding a certain orifice on Trump’s posterior.
With DeSantis term limited out the GOP needed a new candidate and Trump was kingmaker and Donalds got the nod. Donalds played it up for all it was worth and now wants people to forget all about it:
The Herald’s reporting was based on research by the website tracking service Visualping, which recorded multiple changes to the Donalds site, including the removal of at least eight mentions of Trump from its homepage.
Prior to the alterations, Donalds described himself as a “Trump-endorsed proven conservative fighter”, while other since-removed banners featured a “chip in to support Trump-endorsed Byron Donalds” fundraiser and one of Trump’s “run, Byron, run” endorsement announcements from last year.
A previous capture by Wayback Machine of the Donalds website’s list of issues features “Enact the Trump agenda” as his number one priority; that has now disappeared, replaced by “affordability”.
Now, it seems the only mention of Trump is as part of a long list of people who’ve endorsed Donalds for Governor. A polling aggregate from PollsMax yesterday shows Democratic nominee David Jolly 3.6% behind Donalds. Also, Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved the race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican. In other words what not that long ago would have become a comfortable GOP win has tightened up and is trending Democrats’ way.
Trump didn’t do himself or the Republican Party any favors during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly this morning, although notably he told world leaders whatever happens in November HIS name isn’t on any ballot – that he won in a “landslide” and Americans not only have rendered their verdict on him but are still ‘overwhelmingly’ supportive. However it’s not just U.S. politicians that know how to read poll results! Actually, Republicans around the country wish he’d been saying that to U.S. voters for months but I’m pretty sure Trump’s exhortations have been baked in their minds already.
As the linked article makes clear Donalds is far from the only Republican trying to create as much distance between themselves and Donald Trump these days. In Florida, David Jolly needs to remind voters there every chance he gets how until now Donalds has superglued his lips to Trump’s fat orange butt. We Democrats have to keep our foot on the gas because this could be a once in a lifetime year. Gerrymandering has minimized how many seats we can pick up in Congress (as we learned in the 2018 Blue Wave) but the House isn’t the only thing that matters. Senate seats and other state races can if we do what’s needed deliver the Senate (and with a margin) AND incredibly flip some Governorships.
It was unthinkable a few months ago that Texas could wind up with a Democratic Governor. Same with Florida. Now? BOTH are if not up for grabs within striking distance for us. Neither state is going to turn blue, but wins of Senate seats or Governorships in either of them would give us a real chance at neutralizing them as ‘certain’ to go Republican. That will make an earthquake level change in electoral math in this country. So get to work. Resolve to each day try to get at least one person who is fed up with politics, or feeling betrayed by Trump to vote and vote for Democrats.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
