There were six guys running against Graham. May have been a different outcome if there had only been one.
Look for the most “conservative” guy to win. What happened in Virgina is the start of a major wave.
Graham is a skilled and slimy politician who says whatever anybody wants to hear. An old-fashioned retail politician.
He spent literally millions, got only 56% of the “republican” electorate, and still may lose in November.
A bunch of conservatives that talked real big, but as usual tried to be too smart by half.
They, and the ones in KY can finally stop their boasting and actually concentrate on actually winning next time.
Gonna have to get the state legislature to act on that, unfortunately, which doesn’t look likely.
State senator Lee Bright had the opportunity to be a Chris McDaniel, but he totally bungled it.
SC is a PRIME example of why we need TERM LIMITS!
the best candidate in SC had the least money - Lee Bright. He still swamped all other challengers - but didn’t have the money to counter Graham’s ads. Graham ran great radio and TV spots. Very clever. The messages shored up his weak points in voters minds, and there was no money to counter it.
Meanwhile, no talk radio hosts or outside groups got involved in SC for whatever reason. They helped push Brat over the top.
And again, one congressional district is one thing, an entire state is another.
Two biggies: Cantor and his staff were their own worst enemies. And it is MUCH easier to oust an incumbent in a smaller House seat district than a statewide Senate race.
Really it is a matter of not enough state wide appeal. Nobody generated enough positive appeal. The only appeal was negative - dump the RINO. This has strong appeal in the upstate but not so much as you move toward the coast.
There is a fallacy in your assumption.
Cantor lost a primary for a seat in the House
Lindsey won primary for a seat in the Senate
In Va there was one strong conservative voice
There was no strong conservative voice in SC, as always, narrowly focused conservatives put up a lot of candidates to allow the various factions to vote their principles
There is actually no valid comparison in the two races permitting a conclusion to be drawn
Conservative unity wins is the lesson
People overplayed their hand in SC. They fielded too many candidates thinking that was smart. It was not.
Same thing is going to happen in the 2016 primaries too if a lesson wasn’t learned here.
Put up a good candidate against a RINO and back that person. Don’t field a bunch who will cancel each other out allowing the RINO a win.
Like Cornyn, Graham won but it was NOT a ringing endorsement.
I wonder how many conservatives they’ve sufficiently alienated with their lies and deceit during the primaries, that will refuse to vote for them in the general.
Can it be done before the 2016 elections in any state?
Does it have to go through the legislature if we just want to close the Republican Primary?
Does anybody know?
When you go to vote in SC you produce a photo ID. Once you are located on the roll they ask you if you wish to vote on the Republican or Democrat ticket. You tell them your choice, sign one of two sheets, and are given a colored card according to the sheet you sign. You give this card to the poll worker who authorizes the machine for your chosen ticket.
Going by the number of signatures on the sheets the ratio at my polling location was 3 to 1 Republican.
I voted for Lee Bright. There weren’t enough people like me.
There’s a reason SC has the “Corridor of Shame”.
It’s really too bad that those with the lowest numbers stayed in, but then who knows that Graham didn’t offer a “carrot” to them to stay in the race to keep the person closest to him from getting close enough for a run-off. I’m sorry to have to say this, but it shows that we really need to vet candidates better. A couple weeks out from a race, one needs to be able to assess the situation and make decisions. The fact that so many were polling so low, but still didn’t drop out and throw their support to a better candidate tells me a lot about them. It’s still about THEM, and not what is best for the state/country. And, the voters SHOULD be able to see that a candidate running in 4th, 5th or 6th place is a wasted vote. They are as much to blame as the candidates.
Aren’t the primaries in VA open as well? I was reading an article on the way into work saying that democrats in VA were celebrating because they turned out to beat Cantor in order to beat Brat in the general election. Is this the case?
That could explain the extreme divergence from the polls.
13 million to 3 million war chests, that’s what happened. Money always wins......Sickening.