Kris Kobach loss continues a bad election cycle for Trump-style populists
by W. James Antle III, Politics Editor |
| August 06, 2020 06:30 AM
The defeat of former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the state’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday night continued a bad election cycle for populist, nationalist conservatives in the mold of President Trump.
While many Republicans celebrated Kobach’s loss to Rep. Roger Marshall, believing Marshall is much likelier to win the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Roberts and will require fewer party resources to do so, the immigration hard-liner’s defeat raises questions about how much Trump has transformed the GOP into his own image — and how important populism and nationalism were to his 2016 appeal in the first place.
Already in this election cycle, Rep. Steve King lost a Republican primary in Iowa, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was defeated in a primary to reclaim the Alabama Senate seat he held for 20 years. Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio also narrowly lost a primary to win back his old office on Tuesday night. All are immigration restrictionists with ideological and stylistic similarities to Trump. Sessions and Arpaio were Trump endorsers in the Republican primaries four years ago.
“We may learn that Trump hasn’t changed the party as much as we thought,†said a Republican strategist who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “But that might not be decided until November.â€
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