Horrifyingly, all four GOP gang of eight members won primaries against respectable challengers and then won re-election. Opposition to amnesty among GOP voters is a mile wide and an inch deep. It’s just not an important issue to most of them. Maybe that has changed, but until one of the gang of eight loses office, we can’t say it has.
The biggest problem Trump is going to have is that he has almost no foot soldiers in Washington. It’s highly unusual to have a dissident at the top of a government with no base in lower levels of office.
Usually, you are not going to have a radical or reformist head of state until after there is a big parliamentary block with the same political orientation.
Almost all incumbents win. I think if Trump had made a push for some challengers (eg Kelli Ward) maybe there would have been a different outcome.
I would not discount vote fraud (machines) either.
Forgot to mention, I agree with you about illegals not being an important issue. The moment many folks have to spend a nickel more for Made in America or Illegals-free labor, it becomes someone else’s problem to solve.
This is not the usual.
Whole lot of Cantorizing needs to happen.
Flake, Corker, Heller and Hatch are up in 2018.
They all voted for the Gang of Amnesty bill and need to be removed.