The Greek tragedy that is David Dewhurst’s political career

Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) is very likely to lose his reelection bid today, in what would be the latest huge setback (and a potentially fatal blow) in a once-promising political career that had the wealthy second-in-command on a crash course for the U.S. Senate.

In doing so, Dewhurst is likely to become the first big-name Republican to lose two primaries against the tea party — and only two years apart.

In sum: The seeds for his likely loss were planted long ago, and it's not all his fault. But there are plenty of lessons available for other Republicans seeking to avoid similar fates.

Dewhurst, you might recall, was considered the favorite to join the Senate whenever a Texas seat opened up — so much so that it seemed like he might even get a rare free pass. His name cropped up as a would-be senator as early as 2009, when then-Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) said she would resign to run for governor in 2010.

Hutchison later opted to finish out her term, meaning the race to replace her was set for 2012. Then, of course, Dewhurst ran into a guy named Ted Cruz.

Holding the race in 2012 seemed like a good thing for Dewhurst; after all, he could run for Senate while keeping his day job, which wasn't up for reelection until this year. But his loss this year shows that even a seemingly win-win situation can lead to a political loss. Dewhurst's defeat to Cruz effectively left blood in the water, and a coterie of Republicans soon lined up to challenge him.

I just find it shocking the AR GOP is so anxious to run a guy who (aside from a run for a safe House seat) has run in every decade since the ‘80s for statewide office only to lose (Senator, Attorney General, Governor). I also wonder how many folks might mistake him for his brother, who lost the Senate seat that he never should have.

Running a Republican by the name of Joe Blow would probably have a better guaranteed shot at the office. He should win, but by an uninspiring margin... but if he loses, it will demonstrate he was the wrong pick. If Mike Ross wins, it won’t be a victory for the Democrats, as they will continue to deteriorate as a state party. 6-8 years ago, Republicans downballot couldn’t win outside of the northeast Ozarks and the Little Rock suburbs. Today, they’re swiftly claiming the rural White bastions, and in a few more cycles, the only areas the GOP won’t have will be the rapidly declining Black counties in the SE/Eastern corridor along the Mississippi and lower Arkansas river and the leftist moonbat urban enclaves in L.R.

Even across the river in West TN and in the SE Missouri area and bootheel, they’ve moved heavily to the GOP at the legislative level now. There’s almost no rural White counties in TN that elect Democrats anymore at that level, and for the few seats that do, they will fall to the GOP when open (or even if they’re not). They’ll find it very difficult to build a future winning coalition made up exclusively of racist ultraleftist Blacks with poor and declining constituencies with rich, trendy, elitist ultraleftist White urbanites. The specter of Al Gore’s lunacy looms large here.

Well, Asa’s primary opponent was an unknown (and like Asa’s brother had issues with a divorce), so it’s not surprising he won easily. Doesn’t look like anyone else was interested in running.

It would have been nice Tim Griffin had run instead of retiring but whatareyougonnado.

Latest poll I saw showed him leading Ross.

There was a recent NBC/Marist poll showing Pryor Jr. leading Cotton big, I don’t buy it, Pryor will lose, not as badly as Blanche did, but he will lose

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