Democrats meddle in GOP primaries hoping to nominate more conservative candidates
Fox News correspondent Mike Emanuel joins 'Special Report' with the details on the unusual campaign strategy.
Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen called out Democrats meddling in Republican primaries on Wednesday and argued that it reached a "new level of absurd."
"But if some extreme candidates threaten our democracy, as many Democrats say about some Republicans running in the midterms, such a tactic can be dangerous. After all, there’s always a possibility that the supposedly unelectable person might win. Why would anyone who genuinely loves democracy take that risk?" Olsen wrote.
Olsen described the behavior as shameful and suggested that democracy does not actually matter to the Democratic Party. "Those real risks to democracy seem not to matter to Democrats more interested in winning an election than protecting freedom."
Del. Dan Cox, a Maryland state legislator who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Maryland, talks to reporters, in Annapolis, Md., Thursday, June 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)
DEMOCRATS MEDDLE IN MARYLAND'S GOP GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY
Democrats spent millions boosting candidates such as Maryland GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, a supporter of former President Donald Trump's repeated, unproven claims of "voter fraud" in the 2020 election.
"This utterly cynical behavior shows how demagogic Democratic claims to back democracy really are. Far from "defending" democracy, Democrats are using claims that democracy is in peril to try to force moderate voters to support their left-leaning partisan agenda," the Washington Post columnist wrote.
He argued that it allows the Democratic Party to avoid moving to the center on certain issues in order to "accommodate independents and conservatives disaffected by Trump."
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, a Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, speaks at a primary night election gathering in Chambersburg, Pa., Tuesday, May 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Olsen said true believers of democracy would build alliances with those who have opposing viewpoints. "That’s what the Hungarian opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Orban did recently, forming an alliance of parties ranging from the social democratic left to the nationalist right," he wrote.
POLITICAL STRATEGISTS WARN ABOUT MEDDLING IN OTHER PARTY'S PRIMARIES
Some have questioned the Democrats' strategy in hoping to boost "unelectable" Republicans after several "extreme" candidates have won their primaries. Doug Mastriano, the Pennsylvania GOP candidate for governor, who was boosted by the Democratic Governors Association as well, won his primary in May.
"Friends of democracy should be rooting for them, not undermining them with hypocritical partisan game-playing," Olsen wrote.
Voters fill out ballots in voting booths in the New York City election at a polling location in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., November 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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CNN panelists appearing on Sunday's "Inside Politics" criticized the strategy as well.
CNN's chief national affairs correspondent Kasie Hunt and Hans Nichols, a political reporter for Axios, argued that Democrats will have to answer for their meddling in GOP primaries if the "extreme" candidates they're boosting do end up winning in the general election.
"It's not just because some of our moms are listening but, in the back of my head I always hear, ‘Be careful what you wish for,'" Nichols said during the discussion.