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The Runback: Threat Level Midnight
The Maryland Republican Party faces a possible extinction-level event tomorrow
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2022 Candidate Information
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News and Politics
July 2022 Maryland Gubernatorial Power Rankings: The primary is finally here. This is the last installment of the Gubernatorial Power Rankings for 2022
The Great Media Freakout About Ron DeSantis: There's more to media worries about DeSantis than his likely 2024 Presidential Run
Cox Blows Off Forum, Talks to Steve Bannon Instead: Dan Cox's Priorities, in a nutshell
Maryland Young Republicans Abruptly Postpone Convention: Event Had Been Scheduled for July 23rd
Baltimore's Preventable Murders: Maryland Public Policy Institute author Sean Kennedy has tracked the startling number of Baltimore City homicide defendants who should not have been free to commit their alleged crimes.
Telling Tale of Trump's Tele-Rally: Dan Cox may have gottenTrump for a tele-rally. So why isn't Trump coming in person?
Cox's Bonkers Closing Argument: A year into his candidacy and Dan Cox still can't articulate an argument that appeals beyond his hardest of hardcore supporters
Cox on Bannon: More Nonsense: “I cannot tell a lie”, but Dan Cox does well in misinforming, or providing alternative facts, or speaking to things he does not understand.
Bias in Polls? Ya Think? Dan Cox loves talking about bias. But only ever mentions biased poll results
Schifanelli Not Suitable For Public Office: Nobody who acts as vindictive and mean-spirited as Gordana Schifanelli can be trusted by the people to serve them
Science
Another COVID Vaccine Option Approved: Yes, we need it
Sports
Circle City Wins Epic Final to Claim NWLA Championship: Hometown team wins in an extra inning walk-off
The Monday Thought
Imagine a candidate that incorporates the word genocide into their campaign materials being a favorite to win a major party nomination in Maryland. Now imagine that this candidate winning a US Senate nomination after forgetting what state he’s living in today is the third worst possible thing that can happen to the GOP tomorrow.
Welcome to our collective nightmare.
It is not overstating the obvious when I say that the Maryland Republican Party faces a potential extinction-level event at the polls tomorrow.
We have extensively chronicled Dan Cox and his campaign over the course of the past year. Dan Cox has shown that he is very comfortable peddling in conspiracy theories to achieve his means. I’m not even sure that Cox believes half the shit he says; but his voters, many of whom are the same merry band of deadenders who have never been associated with winning anything ever, eat it out of the palm of his hand. What Cox is selling to primary voters is unpalatable to Democratic swing voters and independents. The people that any Republican needs to win overwhelmingly in order to beat a Democrat statewide.
Liberty Unyielding makes the obvious case:
Marylanders should vote for Kelly Schulz in the July 19 Republican primary, to keep Democrats from winning the governor’s race this fall. Schulz is the only Republican candidate for governor who has a chance of winning in the November election. Schulz would be competitive with Democrats in the general election, while the other main Republican candidate, Dan Cox, would be slaughtered in the general election, because he has lots of political baggage and has associated with extremist weirdos. Democrats want Cox to win the primary, so that Republicans will lose in the general election. That’s why the Democratic Governors Association has spent over a million dollars on ads in favor of Cox — because Democrats know Cox will lose in the general election to a Democrat. Cox himself has encouraged Democrats to vote for him in the Republican primary.
That statement above is so painfully obvious that it should be easily understandable by somebody with no knowledge whatsoever about politics or our parties. And yet Cox voters have legitimately convinced themselves that Democrats want to beat Dan Cox in the primary because they know they can’t be him and that this is some sort of conspiracy.
I have no idea what planet these people live on or where they come up with this galaxy-brained shit.
And yet Cox isn’t the only freakshow on the ballot. Don’t forget that Michael Peroutka is still running for Attorney General with her bonkers Christian reconstructionist and neo-confederate sympathies. Even were Cox to lose, having Peroutka on the statewide ballot would be a tremendous distraction for Republicans up and down the ballot.
I want to highlight something that I wrote the day that Dan Cox launched his campaign for Governor:
A Cox candidacy benefits the Democrats so much that you’d almost have to think that Cox is on a Democratic payroll.
It’s hard to imagine that Cox could even run a focused campaign as it relates to Governor. Prior to locking down his Twitter feed after his January 6th involvement, his feed was full of national nonsense and conspiracy theories. Little to nothing related to the state of Maryland, much less his current role as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. One can only imagine that his gubernatorial run will be a greatest hits montage of these outbursts in an effort to gin up support from Trump voters who would probably otherwise not vote in a Republican gubernatorial primary….
….Dan Cox is a joke that nobody of consequence takes seriously. One prominent Annapolis Republican said about Cox’s candidacy, “Silver lining is he’ll be out of the House.” His quixotic candidacy will be little more than conspiracy theories and grievance mongering among those who are otherwise disengaged from state politics. But ultimately, Cox’s campaign will accomplish nothing other than help Maryland Democrats.
And somehow it wound up being even worse than I predicted it would be. And because of it, a Dan Cox nomination for Governor would be an extinction-level event for the Maryland Republican Party. It would show crossover Democrats and independents that Republicans aren’t serious about governing. It would be a calamity up and down the ballot. Scores of Republican candidates would lose in November solely because of the anchor that Cox was around their necks. It would be even worse than the 2018 election where Larry Hogan won, but the rest of the ballot was dragged down into the electoral abyss by Trump’s shadow. The bench would be wiped out. Democrats would control every county executive seat in the Baltimore-Washington area. Republicans would be practically reduced overnight to a small, regional party. And Democrats would have carte blanche to run their leftist extremism at full speed.
It would be a post-apocalyptic political hellscape where Democratic priorities will be allowed unfettered access and funds. It will be California on steroids. And this is the world that Cox voters plan to give us.
If you have not already voted, make sure to go vote for Kelly Schulz and Jim Shalleck tomorrow. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.