Why are Democrats Boosting Pro-Trump Candidates in the 2022 Primaries?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump have done well so far in the 2022 midterm elections, with some help from Democrats. What's behind this confusing cross-party promotion?
The answer is relatively simple: Democrats believe their party's candidates have a better chance in the general elections against pro-Trump candidates than moderate Republicans.
In races across the country, Democratic party groups have crafted campaign ads that elevate messaging from candidates aligned with Trump, such as Kari Lake, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, and John Gibbs, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives from Michigan. Both Lake and Gibbs defeated more moderate Republicans in their primaries. Gibbs beat out Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Republicans who supported Trump's impeachment.
Editorial boards across the political spectrum, from the liberal New York Times editors (Left bias) to those at the conservative National Review, criticized Democrats' attempts to meddle in 2022 Republican primaries "cynical" and hypocritical for boosting candidates that purportedly represent a threat to democracy, which many Democrats have said that Trump is. The Washington Post's (Lean Left bias) Paul Waldman took a different side, saying that "Democrats made a strategic judgment that struck a reasonable balance between risk and reward" and that the meddling "certainly won’t make the Republican Party any more of a threat to our system than it already is."
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