GOP insiders increasingly fear 2024 primaries 'could end up bloody': Politico

Republicans are increasingly afraid that the right-wing Club for Growth is a liability to their path to retaking the Senate in 2024, reported POLITICO on Tuesday.

"The conservative anti-tax group is once again at the center of an intraparty collision course. This time, it’s going up against two of the most powerful people in the GOP — the former president and the Senate minority leader — right as the party is struggling to fix its electability problems and with control of the upper chamber on the line," reported Ally Mutnick, who wrote that the Club injecting itself into the race has raised fears that "a primary that was already destined to be brutal could end up bloody."

"The Club is positioning itself against the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the three states that are most key to retaking the majority: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio," said the report. "Privately some top party operatives and McConnell-aligned strategists worry the Club’s recruits, who are typically conservative hardliners, could struggle to win competitive races. The fear is that, at best, the group is creating unnecessarily messy primaries. At worst it is blowing another shot at retaking the majority. Even lawmakers keeping an open mind about how the Club approaches the current cycle don’t hide their concern over the group’s past tactics."

Speaking to POLITICO, Rep. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said, “There’s a lot of work to be done on understanding the main goal is not to make a point on any one political issue, but to win.” Club for Growth once attempted to get Rep. Mark Walker to mount a primary challenge against Tillis.

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Republicans essentially fear a rerun of 2022, in which an obvious path to the Senate was blocked by a series of controversial and ineffectual Donald Trump allies in key races, like former NFL star Herschel Walker in Georgia, venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona, and celebrity medical TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.

This time, though, Republicans arguably have an even easier map. In addition to West Virginia, Montana, and Ohio, Democrats are defending seats throughout the Midwest, in Nevada, and could be forced into a three-way race in Arizona if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party shortly after the midterms, seeks re-election as an independent. Democrats, meanwhile, have no pickup opportunities other than in Texas, Florida, and Missouri, three states where they have repeatedly fallen short in recent elections.