Donald Trump's hostile takeover of the Republican Party continued unabated in recent GOP gubernatorial primaries for Kansas, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Trump-affiliated candidates won in all three — a generally predictable outcome, given polls showing sky-high approval ratings among Republican voters for the president despite his controversial policies and threats to curtail constitutional freedoms.
There might be a silver lining for Trump opponents, as the same polling shows Trump remains historically unpopular among the wider public. In fact, the nominations of these three pro-Trump candidates could wind up sealing the GOP's fate in the November general election, setting back the march of Trumpism.
The razor-thin margin in Kansas' GOP gubernatorial primary suggests a close attachment to Trump might not be the selling point it once was. Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Tuesday night was declared the winner over incumbent Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer in a delayed result from last week's primary.
Kobach has provided plenty of cause beyond his Trump affiliation for reasonable people to view his victory with trepidation. He built his Kansas political career and his rising national star on the false premise that illegal immigrants are overrunning America and despoiling our election system. He has helped craft laws in other states based on nothing but barely veiled bigotry, including Arizona's infamous "Show Me Your Papers" law.
It's little wonder that when Trump wanted someone to help lead his now-defunct voter-fraud commission — conjured entirely from Trump's refusal to believe he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots — Kobach was his choice. The probe failed miserably.
In Minnesota on Tuesday, Republican primary voters unceremoniously rejected former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who in 2016 rightly described Trump as "unhinged and unfit." It was likely that Pawlenty's critical remarks helped nix his comeback bid in a loss to Jeff Johnson, a little-known county commissioner who took pains to identify himself with Trump and to remind voters of Pawlenty's earlier position.
"It is the era of Trump, and I'm just not a Trump-like politician," Pawlenty said afterward. He should be proud of it.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker easily won, as expected, over primary challenger Robert Meyer, after an 11th-hour tweeted endorsement from Trump — who had previously called Walker "a mess" and "not smart." If history is a guide, Walker will have more abuse to endure from his benefactor in the future.
Some serious Republicans today believe the only way their party will survive Trump is if it collapses entirely, discrediting his backers once and for all and letting the grown-ups retake charge. Democrats and Republicans of conscience in these three states should view it as their patriotic duty to help that process along by rejecting any candidates in November who blindly support Trump's dangerously destructive form of governance.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
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