2022 midterms

Last night’s debate between Pennsylvania US Senate candidates Republican Mehmet Oz and Democrat John Fetterman, was, as The Spectator’s own Ben Domenech described it, “political malpractice.” Watching Fetterman mumble, stumble, stutter, and glitch his way through answers made Joe Biden on a bad day sound like FDR delivering his stirring “Fear Itself” speech. But stroke or no stroke, Fetterman has no record to laud, and the policies he promotes are indefensible. Fetterman showed why he is unfit to serve right off the bat when the moderators (the real stars of the show) asked the candidates, “What qualifies you to be a US senator?” Both Oz and Fetterman seemed to confuse this basic question with “Why are you running?

Like the proprietors of a gimp show at a carnival, Pennsylvania Democrats apparently get off on making the average viewer of their sideshow candidate feel deeply uncomfortable. Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, hobbled by a stroke that has done significant damage to his capacity, was wheeled onto stage at the sole Pennsylvania Senate debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz where the performance was cringe-inducing to a point that it made you want to change the channel, as if upon returning perhaps the dark joke that this man could be a senator would be over. This was a travesty.

After two weeks of tightening polls in the race for governor of New York, a survey released Friday showed a one point lead for Republican challenger Lee Zeldin in his race against incumbent Kathy Hochul. This is a political bombshell in the making, and one would have expected some kind of major pivot or shakeup from the Democrats. But thus far, at least on the issues that matter most, Hochul’s tank has been empty, despite a weak effort on Saturday to address rising crime in the subway. This past week, Hochul was on Long Island, not far from Zeldin’s home, to talk about a state initiative to fix potholes. Yes, potholes.

Psephologists of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but your fibs! I write toward the end of September, when many pollsters are still treating their prognostications as a form of fan fiction. For example, one poll has star trooper Mark Kelly ahead of Blake Masters by 6.2 points in the Arizona race for US Senate. That, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is ridiculous. Punditry isn’t prophecy, but mark my words: Blake Masters, absent some intervening catastrophe, is going to win that race and win convincingly. I am going to stick my neck out and say the same about John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz in the Senate race in Pennsylvania. “The polls” have Fetterman ahead by 4.5 points.

As the November midterms draw closer, the spotlight isn’t just on the Democratic politicians: Their spouses are making waves too. A piece in Monday's New York Times fawned over First Lady Jill Biden, or “Dr. B”, as her students call her. The paper of record reports that according to a senior White House official, Jill “is the most requested surrogate in the administration.” That’s right. The best surrogate the White House has to offer midterm candidates is the woman who compared Latino Americans to breakfast tacos. That says as much about the numerous “rising stars” in Biden’s cabinet as it does about Jill. Her supposed popularity isn’t the only interesting tidbit in the piece.

Braddock, Pennsylvania Americans concerned about the economy — once again voters’ top priority — are turning their backs on the left. “Democrats’ momentum stalls amid economy worries,” reports CBS. “Republicans Gain Edge as Voters Worry About Economy,” echoes the New York Times. The Democratic platforms on policies that affect people personally — crime and public safety are other major concerns — are not winning. And there’s no one worse at delivering, and delivering on, the left’s failing messaging than John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat. I’m a Pennsylvanian and have never understood Fetterman’s appeal. At all.

Cockburn watched with delight last night as Ohio’s Democratic candidate for US Senate, Tim Ryan, served up an absurd accusation against Republican candidate J.D. Vance — only to have Vance spike the allegation in Ryan's face with the force of Kerri Walsh Jennings. It all started when one of the debate moderators, in a blasé, 1960s Firing Line kind of way, asked Ryan for his opinion of the Great Replacement Theory, which holds that powerful Jews are conspiring to replace white Americans with minorities and foreigners. Ryan said he thinks the theory is nonsense, “grounded in some of the most racially divisive writings in the history of the world.

Herschel Walker's performance in Friday night's Georgia Senate debate provided a good example of the benefits of lowered expectations and the difficult task facing Democrats in November. Walker's country drawl came across as charming and allowed him to navigate the thornier questions that have faced his campaign in recent weeks. Incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, meanwhile, struggled to defend his avowedly partisan record during his brief time in office. Campaigns will spin even in the face of clear losses, but the Walker campaign was ecstatic over their candidate's performance, which they view as a definitive boost in the closing weeks of the election cycle.

A new ad from North Carolina Senate candidate Ted Budd is going on offense against his Democrat opponent Cheri Beasley's record of being soft on crime. Beasley served as the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2019 to 2020. During her tenure, the state's highest court ruled that it was unconstitutional to subject some repeat sex offenders to GPS tracking. The case against the state was brought by Torrey Grady, who was convicted of anally raping a seven-year-old boy in 1996 and then raping and impregnating a fifteen-year-old girl in 2006. As a recidivist, Grady was forced to wear an ankle monitor under North Carolina law. He was arrested again in 2017 for failing to register as a sex offender and change his address on file.

With the 2022 midterms now only a month away, there isn't a candidate anywhere who can avoid fielding questions about abortion. The issue is fair game thanks to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in its recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. And all the more so because, at least in theory, Congress could act to either federally legalize abortion or federally ban it. So it is that abortion has become a major topic of conversation in the US Senate campaign in Georgia, where NFL legend Herschel Walker and incumbent Senator Rafael Warnock are locked in one of the most pivotal races this year.

By all accounts, Herschel Walker's defects as a Senate candidate are widely known. The star running back had been very public about his history of mental illness, which led to violent threats in his former marriage. Far beyond the normal risks associated with running a celebrity outsider, Walker represented a particularly unlikely choice. Of course, that all changed thanks to Walker's association with Donald Trump. Ever since Walker joined Trump's New Jersey Generals franchise in the ill-fated USFL, the two have been connected. It was this friendship and Trump's endorsement that allowed Walker to clear the field in what might have been a competitive primary to unseat Senator Raphael Warnock.