Posted on 01/02/2022 6:39:39 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
For more than a week, Republicans from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Washington, D.C., have been shaken by the talk that Sen. John Thune might not seek reelection in 2022. The exit of three-termer Thune, No. 2 in the Senate Republican hierarchy behind Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, would make the odds better-than-even on Democrats winning his Senate seat.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Why do South Dakotans split their vote? They consistently vote for the Republican presidential candidate every time, but they also routinely elect Democrats for their senators. James Abourezk, George McGovern and Tom Daschle are past examples.
South Dakota went 62% for Trump last round.
If they elect a Democrat senator (which would be the same as voting for Biden, given the split in the senate) it would be evidence of widespread voter fraud.
So South Dakotans prefer high inflation, a communist voting takeover, ridiculous gas prices, a war on farmers and ranchers??
“Why do South Dakotans split their vote?”
I think the days of the Dakotas splitting their votes is over. For decades they voted Republican and the presidential level and yet had four democrats between them, mostly due to the older generations voting in the incumbents time and again.
I don’t know why he’s taking so long to make a decision.
He’s either been trying to convince some worthless Republican to run to replace him (to no avail) or he’s been dragging his feet to prevent some conservative from getting a head start.
Or both.
Or, he intends to run again.
I hope he retires.
It is John Gizzi who is NOT credible and has a terrible track record. This was the same guy who said Alaska’s house seat would flip in 2018 and 2020. Gizzi is the same guy who said Herschel Walker wouldn’t run. He has been debunked over and over again.
WHY would ANY rational person vote to strengthen that insane misfit Biden’s hand?
As for Thune - RINO puppet of McConnell- GOOD RIDDANCE
Unfortunately, voters tend to pick someone known and reasonably likeable, then project their own ideas and values onto them, always elevating hope over experience. The Republicans need candidates who can exploit that pattern.
Absolutely.
I thinkbthis article is a RINO spin item.
Because, unlike people who are bought into the whole red-blue sandwich strategy to dominate our people, most South Dakotans are normal, and the only thing normal people hate worse than Democrats is Republicans.
Up close, there is probably no justification for voting for John Thune, but he does have access to goodies (as most Senators do), so why not re-elect him?
Once he has to be replaced, though, the next empty-headed pretty boy (or girl) brings nothing to the table except Republican policy ideas, which most people despise, so another 51-49 election goes 49-51, and the Great Game goes on while the people suffer.
Good riddance to Thune!
Expect massive DemoNaziCommie Election Theft
if he quits
they can easily steal seats in small-population states
they steal seats in a few of the larger pop states too, of course, but it does cost them more $$$
A couple of friendly persuasion visits by Trump in that strong conservative state, should take care of the problem.
Sooooo....what is the South Dakota Republican Committee doing NOW to stop the steal in 2022 and beyond?
What is the RNC doing NOW to stop the steal in all the states?
Indiana used to be like that. They believed bayh was conservative. At least compared to lugar.
Note to SD: Don’t let Deep State pick your candidates for you. And find a Donald Dem to run in the ‘Rat primary. Don’t fight half a battle.
And if you’ve got RCV-enabled voting machines, get rid of them.
With those, even if every voter is a legal voter, Deep State can STILL steal elections.
Ah, the eternal question. Do we press tired, burned out incumbents to hang on until their walkers crumble into rust because they are "sure winners" -- until, suddenly, they aren't -- or do we encourage turnover?
I know, I know, there will always those who say, "why, oh why, please God, oh why ... why can't John Thune just look next door and aspire to be the next Chuck Grassley?" ... yet another generally fine Senator for many years (many decades, a couple of generations), who is running once more because he's been in office so long he can't imagine doing anything else. (And because his staff all want to retire on the Grassley plantation, not go looking for new jobs before they absolutely have to.)
Strom Thurmond should not be the template.
If South Dakota (and Iowa) can't replace an aging vet with a solid conservative a generation younger in 2022, when is a better time? This is as favorable a moment to make a strategic switch as we will ever get. The surest way to jeopardize these seats is to elect someone who no longer wants the job and drifts into mailing it in, or who dies in office and leaves the seat vacant in what may be a much tougher year.
I can understand pressing the old guy into another run in a really, really bad year when he may be the only chance to hold the seat. But to press a reluctant incumbent once more into the breach in what projects as a very good Republican year is a strategic mistake.
None of this should be construed as a criticism of John Thune. I've not followed him closely but I've always regarded him as one of the good guys. If he wanted to run again, more power to him. But if he's sick of the circus, now is a good time to bow out. The South Dakota GOP needs to get serious about candidate selection. Go outside the ranks of professional pols already in office if necessary. Recruit a solidly conservative, articulate, presentable businessman, doctor or rancher ... and vet the h**l out of him. Then annoint him, clear the field for him, and surround him with an excellent staff.
Mistakes can be made in any of these areas, which is why candidate recruitment is an art, not a science, but we've thrown away too many seats over the years by nominating loons. Loons sometimes can step into an overcrowded primary field and win on the strength of some bizarro world factional cult.
Try to get the factional people inside the tent, but make it clear that some guys are off limits. You know: the guy whose main credentials are the Donald Trump tattoo on his butt, the fact that he can drag his knuckles in the dirt with the best of them, and who thinks Anthony Scaramucci was Trump's best staff pick before he was turned by a Deep State conspiracy. This will be the guy who thinks anyone who is not a short earth, six day creationist is a RINO, who thinks Sarah Palin is a Putin tool because she admitted to seeing Russia, and who is proud of the fact that he can't name any foreign country except Manitoba, and that only because he got arrested in a bar fight with a prostitute in Winnipeg seven years ago -- yeah, you know the type. The risk in South Dakota is that this guy will run, and then get Trump's endorsement because of the tattoo and his fighting spirit. If one of these guys emerges as a serious threat, then Thune should run again. But it's the job of the party leadership to do enough due diligence to head off the predictable train wrecks.
The candidate should be solidly conservative but in the mainstream and articulate and savvy enough that he doesn't blow himself up when the media comes looking for soundbites.
Not happening. Not in 2022.
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