Conservative explains why Republicans will continue to lose 'up and down the ballot'

On Tuesday, September 19, a special election for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives found far-right MAGA Republican and conspiracy theorist Erin Connolly Autenreith running against Democratic nominee Lindsay Powell — and Powell won.

Democrats will have a narrow majority in the Pennsylvania House, while Republicans will have a six-seat majority in the Pennsylvania Senate.

In an article published by the National Review on September 20, conservative Noah Rothman argues that Autenreith never should have been nominated and emphasizes that Republicans will continue to lose winnable elections if they keep nominating "paranoid" fringe candidates.

"From questioning the outcome of the 2020 election, to her presence at the January 6 'stop the steal' rally, to her praise of Donald Trump for being the only candidate with the 'courage' to discuss the epidemic of covert child-sex-trafficking in the United States," a frustrated Rothman writes, "Autenreith lent credence to every paranoid shibboleth that signifies membership in the MAGA tribe. She paid for her fealty to Donald Trump's movement with her candidacy, and her constituents will be the ones who suffer for it."

Rothman adds that the same night in a New Hampshire election, MAGA Republican candidate James Guzofski "went down to defeat handily" in a district that conservative GOP Gov. Chris Sununu won by 22 percent in 2022.

"Guzofski argued that the COVID-19 vaccines with which at least 270 million Americans were inoculated are a deadly menace — an odious feature of the 'Plandemic,'" Rothman observes. "He condemned Mike Pence, who 'betrayed the president and the Constitution' by failing to halt the electoral-certification process on January 6, 2021. He circulated an absurd petition calling for a 2020 election revote."

This type of "kookery," Rothman warns, is causing Republicans to lose races they could be winning.

"Registered Republicans appear committed to testing the general electorate's tolerance for their preferred nonsense," the conservative writer laments. "General-election voters appear to be as eager as ever to demonstrate the folly of their judgment. Until this dynamic changes, Republicans will continue to lose races up and down the ballot."