The defeat of Liz Cheney in Wyoming sent shockwaves through the left. It’s clear given the reaction to her loss that they considered her one of their own despite having an “R” next to her name.
As I wrote previously, Cheney’s loss was more than expected given the fact that she’s a representative who forgot she was a representative. The people of Wyoming elected her to do their business in Washington and instead, Cheney proceeded to do Cheney’s business. Getting kicked out of her seat was inevitable.
It was a valuable lesson to many a politician in red states, and a stark reminder that the power they wield is borrowed.
Red states, in particular, have become more and more a stickler about who gets to sit in elected office. Slowly but surely, squishy GOP politicians are being pushed out in favor of people more willing to go to war than play ball. It’s necessary in a time when the left has become so radicalized that they don’t even resemble the party they were just 20 years ago.
States where Republicans rule the roost have had enough. In fact, if I was a Democrat looking to achieve a seat in a red state, I’d be looking at Cheney’s decisive loss as a bad omen.
Safe to say, if I was Robert Francis O’Rourke, I’d be getting really worried about now.
O’Rourke is a twice-failed politician, with one of those losses being to Ted Cruz here in the state of Texas where Republicans still reign supreme despite years of interstate immigration from very blue states. His loss on the national stage was fast and rather embarrassing.
When it was announced that he was going to try to run for the governor’s seat in the state where he failed to beat Cruz, both the right and the left began doubting his chances, but it hasn’t stopped the left from getting his campaign going strong. Leftists came out of the woodwork to shovel money his way, including none other than George Soros who contributed $1 million.
Another $2 million came from Tench and Simone Coxe. The Texas Tribune bills them as a philanthropist couple in Austin, but buried within the article is that they only moved to Texas as recently as 2021 and hail from Palo Alto, California.
The Epoch Times notes that most of O’Rourke’s largest donors come from out of state as well:
He received a total of $500,000 from 28 California donors who gave $10,000 or more. Our Texas Pac of Colorado donated $500,000, and the American Federation of Teachers in Washington D.C. gave $300,000.
These are echoes of Cheney, who also had most of her money come from out of state as well as reported by Fox News:
Cheney raised almost $3 million in the first quarter of 2022 and brought her total fundraising haul to over $10 million, with the campaign boasting nearly $7 million cash on hand. But that vast majority of those dollars didn’t come from her home state, with just 3.8% of the cash coming from Wyoming compared to 96.2% elsewhere in the country, according to data compiled by Open Secrets.
Texas is, for the most part, still red and Republicans are more feisty than they’ve ever been. They’ll expect their politicians to do the business of the people, but it’s pretty clear that, like Cheney, O’Rourke isn’t answering to Texans. Those truly interesting in electing O’Rourke aren’t thinking of Texans, but how useful Texas could be if its leader was under their control.
It’s not hard for Texans to figure out that O’Rourke isn’t exactly on the up and up. His history of exploiting office for self-gain, his flip-flopping on major issues like gun control, and his overall awkwardness as a politician don’t exactly make him palatable to the Lone Star State. If O’Rourke is to win, he’s going to have to rely heavily on forces outside of Texas, which historically hasn’t worked out for him.
This gubernatorial election will be a true test to see where the state is at after years of migration from places like New York and California. As it stands, Abbott has a six-point lead which is good but not great. While he does receive funding boosts for his political stunts, his approval rating within the state isn’t really seeing much movement.
(READ: Beto O’Rourke’s Headline Grabbing F-Bomb Moment Gave Him Disappointing Results)
Polls also tend to underestimate Republicans, meaning that Abbott’s lead is likely a bit larger than it actually is, and what’s more, Republicans have become a lot more active than in previous elections.
Cheney was a Republican and she lost because she resembled a Democrat far too closely. Imagine what it might look like for a Democrat in a red state who is, in truth, a radical leftist.
