How Democrats’ Favorite Midterm Strategy Could Backfire Horribly

Someone needs to convince the donkeys that boosting crazy Republican candidates is too dangerous

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor’s race at a rally. Mastriano, who has ties to a White Nationalist website, was boosted in his primary by his Democratic opponent Josh Shapiro. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

As some of us previously warned, it is a bad idea for Democratic groups like The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors Association to spend millions of dollars to elevate far right candidates.

It’s a line of thinking rooted in the presumption that such candidates will be easier to beat. It was effective back in the days where Instagram used to be for pictures and critical race theory was only mentioned by people who understood the definition. For example, former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill spent $1.7 million on ads that boosted radical tea party candidate Todd Akin in his primary election — more than Akin ever spent on his candidacy — and then successfully defeated him. But that was 2012 and even Claire, who now talks on MSNBC for a living, understands that 2022 has a different political climate.

“There certainly are risks, and it’s certainly different today than it was a decade ago,” McCaskill recently explained to NPR. “When Todd Akin said what I expected him to say, something that was off the wall in the general election, unlike today, the Republican leadership all came together and…