The Under Appreciated News of the Appalachians (and Other Primarily Primary Stories)

Plus, Recapping the Other Headlines That Went Under the Radar This Week

Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, America’s political history, the progressive movement, the truth about Gina Raimondo, and much more.

Let me start with some local news I forgot to include last week. The expenses of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s RhodeWorks truck tolls are increasing steadily. The maintenance of those tolls now cost $53 million despite being inactive for 2 years.

On a side note, then-Vice President Biden put his neck out to support the program, only for Raimondo to try to pressure him to drop out of the presidential race in 2020 to make way for Bloomberg. Wow. Talk about throwing people under the bus.

But I digress. For whoever can put the time and resources into this, it is worth having a “Raimondo Calculator” to tally the total cost of waste, inefficiency, negligence, and maybe even fraud by Raimondo’s Administration. Those who think this is the person who should head the U.S. Treasury Department when Secretary Yellen leaves should really took a close look at her record as Rhode Island Governor and General Treasurer.

In national news, a Politico report has now confirmed the obvious. AIPAC’s iron grip on the Beltway is real, and its policy of interference in Democratic primaries and domestic politics is part of a broader GOP election meddling plan to undermine progressive causes and defeat grassroots candidates in the progressive movement. Dark money special interests like AIPAC are indeed trying to buy our elections.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Israel’s current Diaspora Minister is practically an open Trump supporter? Only under Netanyahu could this type of conduct be allowed.

Now to some primary news:

Via Flickr. Appalachia, where a special election in Southeastern Ohio raises many old questions and offers a lot of new data to check out, including some hope for rural advocates in Ohio & Pennsylvania.

Most recently, we got surprising results from an Ohio special election in the heart of Appalachia. In a congressional district Trump won by 28 points, the Democratic nominee outperformed Biden’s 2020 numbers by about 20%. The Republican winner will only get 55% of the vote—in a district where Trump received 63% of the vote in 2020.

That’s not all. The Republican candidate was a pretty well-off and well-respected State Senator who spent $700,000 of his campaign cash for the race. The Democrat, by contrast, was a waiter who quit his job to run for Congress. He spent a grand total of $25,000 on the race.

All this continues to raise the question of whether the special election results might help us better understand 2024 than the polls. After all, the limitations of right-wing populism have been shown globally in India and even Europe (as Fareed Zakaria and Simon Rosenberg have convincingly pointed out).

It also makes me think there are more openings in Trump Country than we have initially believed, particularly in the Industrial Midwest and the Rural South.

Meanwhile, in Texas, pro-gun activist and YouTube “personality” Brandon Herrera—a.k.a, “the AK Man,” almost unseated Congressman Tony Gonzales (TX-23) in a May primary runoff. Funnily enough, Gonzales blamed his lack of polished BS (literally his words; I am not making this up) for the close race between him and the MAGA candidate who doesn’t even live in Texas.

And in New Jersey, Rob Menendez avoided the punishment of NJ-08 voters for his father’s corruption (to be fair, the Menendez son does not seem to have any association with his father’s legal issues, so far as we know). That said, the price of bad family ties still mattered because Menendez’s primary this year was much more competitive and hotly contested than the open seat race he won convincingly in 2022.

As for Rob’s infamous father, he is running for reelection as an Independent. Well, he is running out of options. The DOJ filings are pretty damning. How many elected officials, Democratic or Republican, have hidden away gold bars the way Bob and Nadine have?

Now let’s turn to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. His recent revenge tour has started out with a bang—or, rather, a bust. McCarthy has officially failed to oust his first incumbent target, Nancy Mace (SC-01). For those who do not know, Mace is a flip-flopper who went from moderate to ultra-MAGA. Yet Mace crushed her McCarthy-backed challenger by about 30 points. Guess McCarthy’s vote-counting skills are worse than we thought. Better luck next time, “my Kevin.” Maybe you shouldn’t have made the deal with the MAGA devil to get your speakership (and maybe you should have thought better of condoning Southern GOP gerrymandering).

And let’s not forget the other Republican congressional chaos out there. For example, NASCAR driving is apparently a qualification to be a party’s congressional nominee. Let’s see if it is enough to actually be a lawmaker for Maine’s second congressional district.

In Montana, Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg launched one of many failed comebacks this election cycle to return to the House. And it was not even close, much like Hostettler’s flop in Indiana.

Primary results have also set up some high-profile races for November in Iowa.

A GOP candidate for Missouri Secretary of State has some startling advice for voters on “liberies,” books, and sexuality.

In Texas’s state legislature, impeaching and convicting a legally battered Republican Attorney General like Ken Paxton is a big no-no in the increasingly antidemocratic Texas GOP, which bars censured party figures from running for office, endorses secession from the Union (Republicans really seem to like policies straight out of 1864), and calls for “spiritual warfare.” Holding Paxton accountable for his actions cost Republicans their seats in Austin, though the Republican House Speaker held on—barely.

In Florida, climate change cannot be mentioned in state government policy. Talk about cancel culture. DeSantis might somehow think this is a death blow to the “woke” mob, but it will not poof away the impact of the climate crisis and the cost of natural disasters on his state (including the property insurance rates hikes).

Let’s also remember that contraception access is right now under attack in Arizona and Nevada. And Virginia as well. “Moderate” Glenn Youngkin strikes again.

Finally, Hunter Biden’s conviction has made Trump’s lies about a two-tiered justice system even more unfounded. Here are some other instances of Trump’s fear mongering not going according to plan, courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel.

And so the Republican train wreck continues. There is more to come, so stay tuned.