While waiting to know whether he will announce his candidacy for the White House in 2024, former U.S. President Donald Trump has in many ways begun to present his aspirations in these mid-term elections, in which Republicans and Democrats are playing for control of Congress and that of several states.
Trump, who has been persuaded by his advisors not to announce his intentions until these elections are over to avoid getting burned before his time, has been campaigning for those Republicans who are close to him and above all attacking possible rivals in the primaries.
The tycoon has organized events in Iowa, site of the first Republican caucus in history, which makes this a symbolic place for those who aspire to become president, or in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, important states in these elections where some of his rivals in the primaries may come from.
This is the case of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who has not yet made his aspirations official. Their differences have been evident in recent dates, after he decided to bet on Joe O’Dea, a Trump critic, for a place in the Senate. The tycoon has responded by not inviting him to a rally convened in the southern part of the state.
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES NEGATIONISTS Conspiracy theories about electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election won by the president, Joe Biden, continue to be more present than ever within a Republican Party where half of its candidates for Congress are in favor of giving pabulum to Trump’s unfounded accusations.
This is the case of the candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, who is not only of this opinion that the Democrats stole the election, but has also sowed some fear that she will not recognize a possible defeat to Katie Hobbs, after she was ambiguous and stated that she would only accept her triumph.
With a few exceptions, the vast majority of the Republican candidates are on Trump’s side, knowing of the electoral benefits it can bring them among voters who are commonly gullible with these theories. According to a survey by ‘The New York Times’, 68 percent of those aspiring to occupy a place in Congress or in local governments believe that there were irregularities in these presidential elections.
One of them is the aspiring governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, who in addition to not recognizing Biden’s triumph, rented buses for Trump’s allies who wanted to go to participate in that rally of the former president that ended up leading to the seditious riots of January 6 in front of the Capitol.
Mastriano differs from the rest of the Republican hopefuls in that he is the only one lagging in the polls against his Democratic rivals. In addition to Lake in Arizona, other naysayers such as the candidate for the Senate in Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, or for governor in the same state, Tim Michels, are favorites and affirm that they will not accept any other result than his triumph.
This negationism may be represented from November 8, in the short term, in the challenges that the Republicans will present if their defeats are close; while in the medium and long term, in case they win control of the House of Representatives, it will be two very hectic years that will be a challenge for Biden and the perfect breeding ground for a possible return of Trump.
