Should Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) survive the midterm election in two weeks, he will likely encounter a great deal of resentment from his colleagues and GOP insiders afterward.
According to a report from Politico, GOP lawmakers and campaign consultants are forming a circular firing squad as they anticipate massive losses in the midterms.
Standing in the middle is Marshall who is surprisingly becoming the poster boy for the GOP’s problems.
Politico reported, "There’s also particular frustration with Sen. Roger Marshall who numerous GOP operatives grumbled never took his race seriously and is now costing the party millions of dollars to rescue in a state Democrats haven’t won in almost a century." The last Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas was George McGill, in 1932. Marshall faces Democrat Adam Hamilton, a first-time candidate and pastor. Marshall’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to Politico’s request for comment.
“No one in the world expected that the Senate would need as much money as they did,” said one national GOP operative working on multiple competitive House races. “All of this money that was expected to go to the House, for the most part, is now being wasted on the Senate because they f---ed up so bad.”
House Republicans are annoyed with their Senate counterparts for fumbling a once-safe map and for "dragging down the top of the ticket with bad candidates" in some key states, Politico reported. Senators, meanwhile, privately put the onus on President Donald Trump for forcing out better Republican incumbents and then backing flawed candidates, including Ken Paxton in Texas, according to three GOP senators and a national GOP operative.
Politico reported that the top Senate GOP super PAC and Trump’s MAGA Inc. have spent nearly $200 million on their own to save Paxton, who is locked in a tight race with Democrat James Talarico.