Former President Donald Trump is showing yet again a major threat he poses to Republicans’ hopes in 2022 — and maybe beyond.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump unleashed on Republican Colorado Senate candidate Joe O’Dea as he wrote, “There’s this RINO character in the Great State of Colorado, Joe O’Dea, that is running against the incumbent Democrat for the United States Senate, who is having a good old time saying that he wants to ‘distance’ himself from President Trump, and other slightly nasty things.”
“He should look at the Economy, Inflation, Energy Independence, defeating ISIS, the Strongest EVER Border, Great Trade Deals, [and] much more, before he speaks. MAGA doesn’t Vote for stupid people with big mouths. Good luck Joe!” he added.
Read the statement below:
Donald Trump trashes Republican Senate candidate Joe @ODeaForColorado, whose centrist campaign has given some GOP operatives hope of scoring an upset victory in the blue-trending state. pic.twitter.com/2Weor4OYGJ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 17, 2022
His comments come after O’Dea vowed to “actively campaign against Donald Trump” in 2024 to make sure he does not win the party’s nomination.
That is a bold vow. However, it may not be as transgressive as some Trump supporters would make it out to be.
He is not the sitting president or the official leader of the party. By vowing to campaign against the former president, it is not as though he is waging war against the party and its standard bearer. In fact, O’Dea pointed to other Republican alternatives such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — who is certainly no RINO flake.
It’s not clear how much Trump’s ire will hurt O’Dea. FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls shows Sen. Michael Bennet (D) holds a healthy 7.9-point lead over him. And RealClearPolitics’ average shows Bennet with a 7.7-point lead.
O’Dea would either need a significant polling error or, essentially, for the bottom to fall out for Democrats ahead of the election if he were to have a shot at winning.
Trump’s comments may not do much damage, but either way, they cannot help.
And this is one of the dangers of Trump.
He does not have too much loyalty to the Republican Party. As long as Republican candidates support him and his agenda, he will back them.
But if they turn on him, he has no problem turning his fire on them, even if it potentially hurts the party’s chances.
This has to be a major concern for Republicans heading into the final stretch of the campaign season.
In some parts of the country, there are close races where Trump is not popular, and candidates need to distance themselves from him.
But if he’s going to get upset and start sending angry Truths aimed at tanking their election bids and suggesting Republicans should not vote for them, that could hurt the party’s chances. And it could backfire on him if Republicans lose races they might have otherwise won.