Donald Trump's control over the Republican party might be loosening after Tuesday's GOP primaries yielded far from ideal outcomes for a collection of hardcore MAGA-aligned candidates attempting to outflank more established Republican incumbents.
While these candidates didn’t get the coveted stamp of approval from the ex-president, they ran hard on Trump’s ultra-MAGA agenda.
In New Jersey, MAGA-aligned candidates floundered in their quest to take down incumbent Republicans, who found victory without too many headaches from their fervently pro-Trump challengers.
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Nowhere was this more evident than in New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District, where former Right Side Broadcasting Network host Mike Crispi lost to longtime Republican Rep. Christopher Smith (NJ).
Despite earning the support of Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, along with dirty trickster Roger Stone serving as a campaign adviser, he was trounced by Smith 57 to 37 percent. Following his loss, Crispi fumed over his loss and declared in a social media post: “CLEAN UP NEW JERSEY ELECTIONS AND END MASS MAIL IN VOTING!”
Neither Stone nor Crispi returned The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.
On his nightly Wednesday webcasting program, Stone fumed over Crispi’s “terrific, but underfunded” campaign falling short of taking down Smith.
Elsewhere, in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, Republican candidate and former state Sen. Thomas Kean Jr. left both more-MAGA-loving candidates Phil Rizzo and former local assemblyman Erik Peterson in the dust.
Kean, who comes from a long line of seasoned New Jersey politicians, including former governor Thomas Kean Sr., was attacked as a weak-kneed Republican and “spineless Trenton sellout” by Rizzo. “Warning RINO alert,” read a sign posted outside his home on voting day. Even with the résumé-staining from Rizzo and competition running farther to the political right, Kean posted a 20-point plus victory over Rizzo, who took second place in the GOP primary.
As the night progressed, more MAGA candidates lost.
In California’s 40th Congressional District, which includes parts of Orange County, voters overwhelmingly supported Republican Rep. Young Kim (CA). While the votes are still being counted, Kim is expected to pull out a win and clinch the run-off slot, which would knock off hardcore MAGA candidate Greg Raths. Raths campaign has been plagued by accusations that he made anti-Semitic comments.
While most far-right MAGA candidates struggled, one Roger Stone-backed candidate found partial success.
Trump-loving attorney Ronda Kennedy, who ran in California's 30th Congressional District jungle preliminary Tuesday, leads by the thinnest margin for the chance to take on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the fall.
“He’s a political genius,” Kennedy told The Daily Beast Wednesday afternoon, referring to Stone.
Returning to Trump’s playbook, while leading in the polls, Kennedy further insisted that bad actors and voter fraud unfolded in her Tuesday primary.
“Somehow, I ended up with somebody’s ballot in my mailbox that was filled out and should have been put in a U.S. mailbox, and it ended up in my mailbox,” Kennedy alleged, while claiming voter fraud continues to be rampant in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. “That was pretty strange!”
Notably, both Crispi and Kennedy enlisted Stone as a campaign adviser, and neither of them successfully garnered the Trump stamp of approval. Moreover, over the past two weeks, Stone has repeatedly claimed to have spoken with the ex-president on the phone while not disclosing what they allegedly talked about. Kennedy declined to comment on if she and Stone ever discussed a Trump endorsement as a part of his role on the campaign.
“Sometimes he [Trump] disappoints me,” Stone admitted on his Wednesday evening Mike Lindell TV program. “If Trump endorsed it would have easily led to more fundraising/votes and put us over the top,” Crispi added. A Trump spokesperson didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on why Trump didn’t back the MAGA candidates.
Mark Rozell, the dean of George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government, told The Daily Beast that the Tuesday MAGA losses might signify that Trump’s grip over the party isn’t absolute.
“There is a message here to many Republican incumbents to stop fearing being primaried, that the power of incumbency remains formidable, and that many voters in the party are looking past Trump now,” he said. “Quite simply, the diminished ex-president doesn’t command the same power within the party that he did a few years ago.”
That analysis is good news for Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), who in recent weeks has faced an onslaught of attacks from Trump supporters and more fringe MAGA candidates seeking to eliminate the prospects of a Speaker McCarthy if the GOP takes back the lower chamber.
While Trump’s grip might be loosening in select congressional races, the former president was focused on those he did anoint with his endorsement.
“A perfect night of Endorsements, 16-0,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Wednesday, “and some of them tough races!”
