The Republican Party's professional standards have collapsed. This isn't about electoral prospects — though those may suffer too. It's about the basic competence and credibility of the people running under the GOP banner.
Start with candidate quality. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, now a Senate hopeful, has a pile of legal troubles, including spending New Year's Eve in Dubai with two indicted fugitives, one of whom was a major donor. He's just the most visible example.
In Colorado, gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx is so problematic that even a former state GOP chair refuses to back him. In Texas, Trump-endorsed House candidate Brandon Herrera, a podcaster known for deliberately offensive content, has mocked Jesus and promoted a supplement he claims boosts ejaculate volume, saying he likes it because it lets him "bewilder random women." Fellow Republicans have labeled him a "goose-stepping extremist."
Georgia Senate hopeful Mike Collins, another Trump pick, had two campaign organizers who were also leaders of a white nationalist group, and his son-in-law is a self-avowed white supremacist. Beyond the moral issues, running such a candidate in a diversifying state is political malpractice.
These candidates are matched by messaging that's equally off-base. Republicans once dominated political advertising — think Willie Horton in 1988 or the Swift Boat attacks in 2004. Even in 2024, they showed flashes of brilliance, like the "They/Them" ad. But now, the GOP's entire strategy seems to be calling "affordability" a hoax and warning that communists will take over if Democrats win Congress.
This messaging isn't just ineffective; it's insulting. Trump made "making America affordable again" his 2024 mantra, but his actions have done the opposite, and now he tells voters to "stop whining," saying higher gas prices are "a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done."
The communist takeover scare is equally overblown. A few self-proclaimed socialists have won Democratic primaries, but they're a tiny fraction, and even if elected, they'd be a minor nuisance, not a revolution. Democrats can't do much even with majorities while Trump holds the veto pen. We've survived Bernie Sanders for nearly two decades; Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan-born Democrat, hardly threatens democracy.
This decline traces back to Trump's need to dominate. He turned on Senator John Cornyn for no good reason other than to prove he could. He enjoys humiliating people, and now he's doing the same to voters. These unfit candidates and terrible messages are a test: "You'll eat this slop because I say so."
Congressional Republicans may tolerate these insults to keep their jobs. Voters don't have to. That's something to remember on election day.
