LANSING — Michigan political analyst Chad Selewski’s new column cast further doubt on failed candidate John James’ second run for Senate. From RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel admitting this week that Michigan will be harder for the GOP to win in 2020, to President Trump’s sagging poll numbers in the state, to the lingering questions about James’ getting caught deleting his beliefs off social media, political analysts agree that James is facing stronger headwinds than he anticipated.
Read about why many are already skeptical about James’ candidacy HERE, or see excerpts below:
Politics Central – Politically Speaking: Is James merely a respectable recruit, or a serious contender as a GOP candidate? By Chad Selweski
Key Points:
- The question now is whether James, as a fresh contender, has a realistic chance of scoring a knockout against Peters.
- Just days after James’ announcement that he is running, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel conceded it will be harder to win the Peters’ Senate seat than what James, an Iraq War veteran, encountered in his loss to Stabenow by 6½ percentage points.
- With the president consistently lagging in Michigan polls, it seems that James might be holding back, trying to decide if a virtual repeat of his pro-Trump 2018 Senate campaign is the way to go.
- Is James no longer ‘2,000 percent’ behind Trump? Despite his obvious political ambitions, James made the highly unusual decision to take down nearly all of his online campaign material just days after the November 2018 election. He quickly eliminated hundreds of Facebook and YouTube campaign videos, including those where he said that he was “2,000 percent” behind Trump. A similar purge occurred on Twitter.
- When he announced on June 6 that he would make another Senate run, James produced a post on Twitter that featured confounding ambiguity. “We are heading in the wrong direction as a country,” he tweeted, “and our leaders in Washington are failing to lead us toward a better and brighter future.”
- Trump controls the White House, issuing executive orders and declaring emergencies, and the GOP has a stranglehold on the Senate, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocking dozens of bills passed in the House.
- James’ background as an Army combat fighter pilot who now runs his father’s auto-related business in Detroit will have less impact this time around. That’s because Peters is a former financial consultant and a member of the Naval Reserve. Cox has repeatedly claimed that James has “dedicated his life to the service of our nation.” Yet, after graduating from West Point, James served eight years on active duty before turning to the private sector. Peters has served 10 years in the Reserve and he currently sits on the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees.
- Nolan Finley, the News’ editorial page editor, suggested that GOP strategists have led James by the nose, setting him up for a second defeat that could ruin his status as a rising star in the party.
- “The risk for James is that losing two Senate races in two years will label him a loser and, at a too-young age, destroy what should be a bright political future,” he warned.
- And Bankole Thompson, the voice of Detroit’s black voters on his radio program (910-AM in the Motor City), wrote that Republicans falsely view James as a black conservative who can win the support of the city’s African-Americans.
- “… The irony is that James’ own albatross is Detroit, his family hometown, where he lost massively to Stabenow last year after netting only about 9,000 votes,” he pointed out. “By contrast, more than 170,000 Detroiters gave their vote to Stabenow.”
Read the full report here.
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