Pretend cowboys, home demolitions, and extreme anti-abortion agendas
Welcome to another edition of Transplant Turmoil—the weekly series spotlighting the ways Republican carpetbaggers continue to prove themselves as out-of-touch with the state they’re running in.
There’s been increasing national attention to the GOP’s pattern of millionaire out-of-state candidates running for Senate—some reports focused on their never-ending gaffes and others doubted the actual candidates’ quality, but all agree that this strategy is questionable at best. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow dedicated an entire segment to detailing all the ways these candidates have lied to and worked against voters in the states they’re running in.
“The GOP’s strategy to run wealthy carpetbaggers this cycle is backfiring,” said End Citizens United // Let America Vote Spokesperson Grace Silva. “These candidates lack authenticity and are too far removed from the struggles of working families. Voters are starting to see through their desperate and failing appeals.”
Here’s what the GOP’s out-of-touch candidates have been up to:
#WISen: California Bank Owner Eric Hovde Plays Cowboy in Commercials Airing Out-of-State
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In a new report from Politico, commercials featuring Hovde continue to play across airwaves—except they’re not commercials for his Senate run in Wisconsin. Instead, western states like California, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho get to watch Hovde don a cowboy hat and play cowboy while he touts his bank. It’s not a great look for him as he desperately tries to claim status as a Wisconsinite.
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In a ten minute video, Rachel Maddow poked fun at his recent Pledge of Allegiance gaffe before destroying him for his recent comments on the elderly voting and his nursing home lawsuit.
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With months of campaigning still ahead, Wisconsinites are already sick of Hovde’s out-of-touch policies. Across the state, voters unsettled by his campaign have written various letters to editors slamming him for sweeping into the state and expecting to buy a Senate seat as a MAGA mouthpiece. It’s not just LTEs—The Cap Times published an editorial highlighting the vagueness of Hovde’s campaign, writing “Based on how he has presented himself since announcing his candidacy, Hovde could be running in any state. Even California.”
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Recent polling has Senator Baldwin up seven points ahead of the California banker, 48 percent to 41 percent. This is reflected in an analysis of their fundraising: Senator Baldwin’s top donors have Wisconsin zip codes, whereas Hovde’s are in California. It’s clear that voters know that Senator Baldwin is working for them while Hovde only works to enrich himself and his billionaire buddies.
#MTSen: Wannabe Cowboy Millionaire Tim Sheehy Struggles Through On-Camera Interview
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In his first on-camera interview with a Montana news outlet, Sheehy struggled to answer point-blank questions about the growing list of lies that have emerged from his campaign. He was asked about his ever-changing gunshot wound story, the new report on a staffer’s racist social media postings, and his failing business. In all of the responses, Sheehy struggled to give a straightforward answer, often choosing to attack the various news outlets or downplay the severity of his lies.
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This week, Daily Beast exposed Sheehy’s campaign for hiring a staffer who repeatedly liked and posted racist and bigoted content to his social media. This includes hateful language towards Black Americans, the LGBT+ community and Muslim Americans, while simultaneously attacking the GOP’s efforts to connect with Black and brown voters. Sheehy’s team confirmed the staffer was employed by them, but rather than reply to any questions or take accountability for the hateful language, the campaign did not provide an answer and instead attacked the outlet.
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Continuing her coverage on out-of-states candidates, Maddow highlighted Sheehy lying both about where he grew up and the inconsistencies in his story about the gunshot wound—which are both stories embellished to lean either into his wannabe cowboy persona or his military background.
#NVSen: Scam Brown Wants to Turn Nevada into Nuclear Waste Dumping Zone
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Following recently resurfaced comments from Brown once supporting using Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dumping site, Brown doubled down on his stance, saying he won’t rule it out. The rejection of the Yucca Mountain proposal is a bipartisan one—no one in Nevada wants to see the state turned into a nuclear dump site. But, then there’s Scam Brown…who will put profits over the land and do anything to please special interest groups instead of looking out for Nevadans.”
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Over the weekend, Brown doubled down on his anti-abortion agenda by refusing to sign the Nevadans For Reproductive Freedom petition to enshrine abortion rights in the Nevada Constitution. He also attended yet another extreme anti-abortion event. While Senator Rosen signed the petition, Brown refused to respond to questions on if he also planned on signing.
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The Republican in-party fighting continues. Following a new wave of attack ads, his rival continues to expose Brown’s weaknesses.
#MISen: Florida-Man Mike Rogers Demolishes Never Lived-In Michigan Home
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This week, Michigan Advance revealed Florida-Man Rogers never actually lived in his Michigan home—which he bought two months before declaring his Senate candidacy. He demolished it and has no timeline for its construction. Mike Rogers is doing everything he can to avoid actually living in the state. As Rachel Maddow reminded her audience, he’s still registered to vote in Florida—despite having been called out multiple times for it.
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Following Trump’s Time interview where he said he’d allow states to monitor pregnant people and arrest those who received an abortion, Rogers declared the answer as “elegant.” Given that he celebrated the overturning of Roe, it’s not a surprise that Rogers is eager to criminalize women for making their own medical decisions. He supports personhood legislation—cosponsoring four bills while in Congress—which would ban abortion and end IVF, and has compared abortion to murder. Since he’s still registered to vote in Florida, one has to ask: how does he plan on voting on Florida’s abortion referendum?
#PASen: Connecticut Hedge Fund Millionaire David McCormick
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This week—which marks the anniversary of the Dobbs decision leak—McCormick tried to claim that Senator Bob Casey is out of touch with Pennsylvanians on abortion, while declaring he’d be comfortable with Florida’s strict six-week abortion ban. The majority of Pennsylvanians support abortion in some or all cases.
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Rachel Maddow also pointed out Connecticut hedge fund McCormick’s lies about his “humble” upbringing, contrasting his claims of growing up on a family farm with the reality of growing up in the “president’s mansion” at Bloomsburg University.
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In a new head-to-head poll, Senator Casey leads McCormick by seven points—46 percent to 39 percent.
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