How did Bright “totally bungle it?”
McDaniel came out of the gate and locked up serious national endorsements very quickly. Bright totally failed in this regard despite holding a very similar position to McDaniel (a prominent state legislator conservative), and I can only put that down to poor presentation and retail politics on his part.
National groups clearly hoped someone better would come along. GOA for example waited until a day before the election to settle on Bright.
This was exacerbated by Bright’s financial problems which involved an underwater trucking business that was facing foreclosure as well as a lawsuit for late payments.