How do you decide which is the most dangerous snake? Do you only consider the toxicity of its venom? Or should you factor in aggression and how close they live to people? Whichever way, at the end of the day, you can identify several species that belong unequivocally on the ‘avoid list’. It is the same way with Republican politicians. And in 2022, the GOP has some particularly toxic new candidates for the Senate.
Following is a survey of where we find these noxious wannabe new Senators.
Alabama (Solid R)
Republican incumbent Richard Shelby is retiring. Two GOP candidates will face off in the June 21st runoff. Katie Britt (40), who is Shelby’s ex-Chief of Staff. And Mo Brooks (68), a six-term Representative. Britt is a doctrinaire conservative but does not seem like a lunatic. Brooks is a hard-core MAGA and big-lie supporter. (In December 2020, he was the first Congressperson to challenge the January 6th, 2021 certification of the election.)
For this, he earned Trump’s endorsement. Then he lost Trump’s backing when he suggested moving on from the 2020 election obsession. Besides, he trailed badly in the polls and wore the aura of defeat. Ironically, since Trump dumped him, he has rebounded.
Trump subsequently endorsed Britt, who has a commanding lead over Brooks.
Arizona (Toss-up)
Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly (58) will run against one of six people contesting the Republican primary on August 2nd. Current poll leader Blake Masters (35) is the MAGA candidate, endorsed by Trump and funded by his employer, Thiel Foundation founder Peter Thiel. Masters has dialed his crazy up to 11 by maintaining that the 1/6 riot was an FBI operation.
His leading opponent Mark Brnovich (56) is the current AG and rock-ribbed conservative — but rated a RINO for his failure to overturn the 2020 election in AZ.
Colorado (Lean D)
Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet (57), who won by 13% in his last race, will face either Ron Hanks, a state Representative, or Joe O’Dea (60), the CEO of a local construction company. Hanks was a participant in the 1/6/21 Capitol Hill insurgency. And the Democrats think Hanks is so eminently beatable they have spent $1.5M to help him win the GOP primary. O’Dea seems like a traditional Republican, which has hurt his favorability with the base
Bennet should be a shoo-in. But like all Democratic incumbents, he is hamstrung by economic headwinds and Biden's dismal approval numbers.
Georgia (Toss-up)
Incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock (52) will face Herschel Walker (60). Walker is one of the GOP’s most notorious candidates. His main asset is 100% name recognition as a UGA Heismann Trophy winner and national NCAA FB champion.
However, he is deeply flawed with a history of lying about graduation, academic rank, and business success. He claimed to have started a veterans’ charity for which he is merely a spokesman. He is a spousal abuser, a fan of Russian roulette, with admitted anger management issues and multiple-personality disorder. He has blamed absent fathers for social deterioration in minority neighborhoods — while he has three children he rarely sees. So it is no surprise he is the MAGA candidate endorsed by Trump.
Missouri (Lean R)
While Herschel Walker’s flaws are just now hitting the public fan, Missourians have long known Eric Greitens (48) to be a reprehensible man. He is the ex-Governor of Missouri, who resigned after charges of adultery (which he admitted to), violence, and blackmail (which he denied). Greitens was also indicted for computer fraud involving donor lists. He is now running to fill the Senate seat the two-term Republican Roy Blunt is vacating.
His main opponents in the GOP primary are Eric Schmitt (46), Missouri’s current AG. And Vicky Hartzler (61), a six-term US Representative. Both are cookie-cutter MAGAs, who check all the Republican bigotry boxes, deny climate change, hate Obamacare, etc. But, as far as I know, neither has personal baggage.
Nevada (Toss-up)
Adam Laxalt (43) is running against one-term Democratic incumbent Catherine Castro Masto (58). Laxalt was co-chair of Trump's losing Nevada campaign. He did his best to throw the election by unsuccessfully trying to stop early votes from being counted in the heavily Democratic and populous Clark County, home to Las Vegas. In return, Trump endorsed the ex-Nevada AG and failed Gubernatorial candidate.
Laxalt had a DUI as a teenager but has been sober since. So that is good. However, he is a standard-issue MAGA and a loyal ally of the 2020 loser. And he is an active federalist who thinks environmental and labor laws should be the sole province of the state.
New Hampshire (Tilt D)
The current one-term Democratic incumbent, Maggie Hassan (64), has said she will run again. She will almost surely win the September 13th primary. Donald Bolduc (60) is likely to win the Republican primary. Bolduc ran for NH’s other Senate seat in 2020, losing in the primary. Nevertheless, he continued to embrace Trump and the conspiracy theory that evildoers stole the 2020 election.
He is a retired Brigadier General in the mold of Michael Flynn, a paranoid ex-military officer. So it is no surprise he accused the current Governor of NH, Chris Sununu, a fellow Republican of being a "Chinese Communist sympathizer" and claimed that Sununu's business "supports terrorism."
North Carolina (Lean R)
Ted Budd (50) is the Republican nominee to run against the Democratic candidate, ex-Chief of the NC Supreme Court Cheri Beasley (56). Budd is a gun store owner and a current US Representative. He received the endorsement of both Trump and his daughter-in-law, Lara. Not surprisingly as he is a committed election denier and a member of the House’s “Freedom Caucus”.
He is another MAGA who has no evident personal baggage. Although in February 2021, he and a dozen other GOP Reps enlisted others to vote for them in the House, citing COVID concerns. Then they all showed up at CPAC. (Under the theory that COVID cannot survive the lies told at a conservative lovefest?) He was also one of 14 Reps to vote against condemning the Mynamar coup d’etat. Was he taking notes?
Ohio (Lean R)
Two-term Republican incumbent, Rob Portman, is retiring. Republican JD Vance is running against the Democratic nominee, 10-term US Rep. Tim Ryan. Vance has completed one of the most unlikely u-turns in political history.
In 2016, he wrote in a USA Today opinion, “Trump’s actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd.” He also called the 2020 loser “reprehensible” and “My God, what an idiot”. He said “I'm a Never Trump guy," and "I never liked him." As well as declaring, “I can’t vote for Trump, I can’t stomach the guy, I think he is noxious.” His visceral loathing of Trump was such that he added the ultimate conservative apostasy, “as someone who doesn’t like Trump I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton”.
But come 2021, after he decided to run, Vance went, cap-in-hand, to kiss ring at Mar-a-Lardo. And presto, he won Trump’s endorsement. His most compelling selling point is that, while most of the party has moved on, Vance is still four-square behind Trump’s folly, the border wall. He has also called illegal immigration “dirty”.
Pennsylvania (Toss-up)
Two-term Republican incumbent Pat Toomey is retiring. Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz (62) is running against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (52). Dr. Oz is a political neophyte with no particular connection to Pennsylvania. But he is a big TV star, so Trump backs him.
Unlike many conservatives who have held their hateful positions for years, Oz, who once described himself as a moderate Republican in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt, is a Johnny-come-lately to political extremism. But like many expedient former centrist Republicans (consider the sad case of Elise Stefanik) his lack of a moral anchor has permitted him to embrace crazy. In one example, he has gone from backing universal, government-subsidized healthcare to being a rabid opponent of Obamacare.
What else would you expect from this quack? He spent his TV career as a proponent of wacky cures and dubious weight-loss supplements. He has had psychics, faith healers, peddlers of unproven/disproven medical treatments, and anti-vaccination activists on his show. And he has been taken to task for backing pseudoscience, homeopathy, and alternative medicine.
He would fit right in
Vermont (Solid D)
Eight-term incumbent Democrat Patrick Leahy is retiring. The Republican candidate does not stand a chance (If they should win, America will be on the road to becoming a one-party state).
Wisconsin (Toss-up)
Two-term Republican incumbent, Ron Johnson, pledged not to run for a third term. He lied. So win or lose, there will be no new Badger State Republican in the Senate.
And that, dear reader, is the dismal state of play of aspiring Republican neophyte senators.