Look at close elections of the past 20 years. Media coordinated October Surprises.
In 2000 the election eve disclosure of Bush’s decades old DWI arrest cost him the popular vote (Gore’s majority was only 0.51%) and almost cost him the electoral vote.
In 2004 Dan Rather and AP released (courtesy of Democrat liaisons) forged National Guard memos alleging that Bush was AWOL during the Vietnam War. Prior to that was the leak of the Abu Ghraib photos (by the disgruntled Uncle of one of the perps who tried to blackmail the government for a softer release) which was also supposed to cost Bush the election (it didn’t cost him support but it cost the US support for the Iraq War and emboldened the terrorists from other countries to go to Iraq and fight as so-called (foreign funded) insurgents).
In 2006 there was the DNC and media coordinated attack on a Congresscritter who’d been texting a minor aide. The allegation was that the GOP knew and did nothing, the media and the DNC knew more, earlier, and conspired to save it for the fall election season. Outing two homo helped cost the GOP Congress under the allegations of “a culture of corruption that rises to the top ranks of the party!”. BTW the “ethics charges” against Tom DeLay were a joke and eventually he won his case.
In 2012 Harry Reid alleged that Mitt Romney paid no taxes (and has subsequently said that his lie worked).
In 2016 the Billy Bush tape was leaked to try to tank Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy.
How queer that the LA Times acknowledged that they had a videotape of Barack Obama toasting an Islmonazi with ties to terrorism but declined to release it because it was at a “private event”.
In 1992, Bruce Herschensohn, an intellectual who is a solid conservative was running for a US Senate seat from California against Barbara Boxer. The Friday before Election Day, a report came out that Herschensohn was spotted at strip joints.
The timing of the story was suspect, and even if it was true it should not have made much of a difference-- Herschensohn had never raised moral issues of the sort in his campaign. But some "Christian conservatives" who called in to talk shows over the weekend ate it up and said they wouldn't vote for him because they now saw his alleged behavior as un-Christian, or something like that.
Barbara Boxer went on to narrowly win the election. And I assume the "Christian conservatives" who couldn't vote for a "sinner" like Bruce were happy with the result.