Down-ballot Republicans watch with glee as Sanders gains steam (Politico)

[highplainsdem]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/congress-sanders-republicans-trump-116523

Bernie Sanders hasn’t won the Democratic primary — but down-ballot Republicans are having a field day acting like he has.

Republicans up and down the ballot are already casting their Democratic rivals as socialist puppets who would remake the economy in Sanders’ collectivist vision. The play is straightforward: President Donald Trump has repelled college-educated suburban voters since he took office; Republicans want to win them back by arguing the alternative is worse.

Arizona Sen. Martha McSally launched a TV ad titled “Bernie Bro” likening her Democratic opponent, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, to the Vermont senator. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis held a news conference last week linking his Democratic rivals to the Sanders-backed “Green New Deal.” In Michigan, a conservative group has aired a series of commercials that go after Democratic Sen. Gary Peters by invoking Sanders and his support for “Medicare for All.”

And in the wake of Sanders’ New Hampshire primary win, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which focuses on state legislative races, has been running digital ads asking whether down-ballot Democrats in more than a half-dozen states are “feeling burned yet” — a take on the Sanders mantra, “Feel the Bern.”

-snip-

Glee.

Unfortunately, that's the correct word.

Every Republican I've asked about this is gleeful about the prospect of Sanders being the Democratic nominee.

And some can hardly believe Democrats would hand them such an electoral gift.

[jrthin]

1. I'm dismayed.

[apcalc]

2. It's heartbreaking. Imo true. We are stupid.

[RandySF]

3. I count 20 House freshmen going down under this scenario.

[evertonfc]

4. If we nominate a non Democrat as our nominee

we're screwed for next few election cycles. We are the Democratic Socialist party and become coastal and irrelevant

[still_one]

5. You are being optomistic I think

[PatSeg]

6. This is so depressing

[Qutzupalotl]

7. Putin is already interfering in our primary.

I wish I were being hyperbolic.

In my nightmare scenario, Bernie gets the nom and taps Gabbard as his running mate, then has a fatal heart attack. We are forced to vote for an Assad appeaser or a Putin appeaser.

[sheshe2]

8. Yep.

Then we have someone eager to primary sitting Dems.

[Scotch-Irish]

9. Politico can be so full of BS

This is one of those times.

[highplainsdem]

10. Apparently you missed the post a few days ago about the McSally ad linking Kelly to Sanders:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287536324


Politico isn't exaggerating. Republicans want to run against Sanders. They've been hoping he'll be the nominee for almost a year now.

When they talk about running against Sanders, whether the race for the White House or down-ballot, they sound like kids looking forward to Christmas.

[madville]

11. I know two Republicans here in Florida that have switched from REP to DEM

Just so they can vote for Bernie in the closed primary then vote Trump in the general.

[4now]

12. This is just the beginning