Democrats spend money to defeat the moderate Republicans they claim the US desperately needs

"Bernie Moreno," the unmistakable voice of former president Donald Trump opens the ads that have inundated Ohio television screens in recent months, as Moreno’s campaign for U.S. Senate builds momentum. The center of which is that very endorsement from Trump. The endorsement has been nothing less than silver bullet in Republican primaries since the reality TV star hijacked the GOP. It proved decisive on Super Tuesday as Moreno ran away with the nomination. But what gives life also takes it away.

Trump’s endorsement is the rocket engine that gets you off the ground, but if he doesn’t drop off in the general election, he’ll drag you to a fiery death. In 2022, Trump made an endorsement in 12 major general election races, and in 11 his endorsed candidate lost. Ohio’s J.D. Vance was his only winner. And even Vance only won by six points. Not a small margin, but an indication of a weak candidate when one considers that Republican Mike DeWine won the governor’s race by 25 points on the very same ballot.

From the editor: Candid reflection from an ‘enemy of the people’

One might argue that Trump’s endorsement wasn’t the cause of these campaign implosions, but it’s a distinction without a difference. Either Trump endorses bad candidates, or his endorsement turns off undecided voters. Democratic strategists have been eager to benefit from this trend.

For instance, there was a strange attack ad targeting Moreno as Super Tuesday day closed in. The ad stated everything the Moreno campaign looked to highlight themselves. It outlined Trump’s endorsement, and ended with "Trump needs Moreno, Ohio doesn’t." It’s a losing strategy to draw attention to your opponent's endorsement from the party’s standard bearer, but those running the ad weren’t hoping to hurt Moreno. The ad was part of a strategy from a Democratic PAC that attempted to help the former car dealership owner win the Republican nomination, giving incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown a better matchup in the general election. They knew Trump-endorsed candidates run worse in general elections, and Brown would have been in more danger if Matt Dolan won, and March polling backs this theory up.

This kind of political gamesmanship represents exactly why Americans have become so disenchanted with politics. They don’t trust anyone. Democrats have made arguments that Trump, and Trump-adjacent candidates represent a threat to democratic government and made pleas for more moderate Republicans. These are sentiments I share. Yet they spent money to elevate Trump-endorsed candidates and defeat the moderates they claim we need more of. How can anyone believe you when you cry wolf and then fund the wolf’s Senate campaign. If you believe Moreno represents a larger existential threat, why would you help him win a primary? Why would you take such a gigantic risk of giving power to those you claim will burn the country to the ground unless you didn’t believe it.

Democrats are holding their breath and Republicans are holding their nose this November

If politicians and strategists believed David Duke, or Nick Fuentes, or Adolph Hitler himself would be easier to beat in a general election, would they pump money into their primary campaigns? Where’s the line? If someone is an existential threat, there is no degree to how existential of a threat they pose. Either they do, or they don’t. Democrats’ rhetoric says Moreno does, but their actions indicate the contrary.

Such actions shred their credibility and the public’s trust in our institutions. Such disregard for the responsibility of political leaders is what has led so many Americans to nihilism and a desire to tear the whole system down. These failures plague both parties, and if political leaders continue to play these kinds of games, they will only feed the cynical nihilism that they lament. Act with candor and civility, or stay out of public life. Such juvenile and unserious games are the threat their players claim to care about.

Joe Palange is a native Ohioan, lives in Cleveland, and writes about politics and government.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Democrats beg for moderate Republicans, but fund Trump-endorsed ones