Good Luck, GOP Congressmen: This Is the Next Six Months of Your Life

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 2, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 2, 2016 |

Conner Eldridge is a friend of a friend. He’s running for Senate as a Democrat in the deeply red state of Arkansas, which hasn’t really voted Democrat since Bill Clinton, i.e., since the Yellow Dog Democrats realized that the Republican Party was no longer the party opposed to the ideals of Lincoln. Before Clinton came along and all the Southern Democrats converted to Republicans, Arkansas was completely controlled by the Democratic Party — Clinton, David Pryor, Dale Bumpers, and William Fulbright. In fact, from 1873 until Mike Huckabee in 1996, Democrats held the Governor’s seat all but six years.

That’s not the case anymore. The governor and all six Congressional representatives are Republicans. Arkansas is a deeply red state, so red in fact that it’s one of the few states still projected to go to Trump, in spite of the fact that Hillary Clinton served as First Lady for 12 years there.

It should be a state the GOP doesn’t have to worry about this fall. Nevertheless, Connor Eldridge has a shot against the incumbent Republican, John Boozman, who blew the well-liked, well-respected Blanche Lincoln out of the water in 2010 by a 21 point margin, in spite of the fact that Blanche Lincoln is an amazing person. With Trump on the ticket, that shot actually seems even more plausible, especially if the well-funded Eldridge continues to run ad campaigns like this one, which barely mentions his opponent but firmly ties him to to sexist, sleazebag Donald Trump.

It is brutal.

I haven’t voted in an Arkansas election since 1996, but that ad right there was enough to inspire me to contribute to Eldridge’s campaign, if only in the hopes that the Democrats can take one more Senate seat away from the GOP this fall in a particularly strong Red State. In fact, as much as I hate Donald Trump, if he blows it for the GOP down ticket, all this may have been worth it, if only because it may allow the Democrats to grab more seats in the Senate.

If that ad works — and I hope it does — it may provide the blueprint for every Democratic candidate running in the South. In other words, you might be fucked, Republican incumbents. Thank your new GOP Overlord, Donald Drumpf.

Hat Tip: JJ