President Donald Trump's power to endorse candidates got a brutal obituary in The Daily Beast on Wednesday, as the number of Trump-endorsed candidates this cycle who have lost their primary officially hits double digits.
Three more such candidates lost this week: Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), who was unseated in Florida's 7th district in his primary following months of allegations of domestic abuse and other misconduct; Catalina Lauf, who lost the open primary for Florida's 19th Congressional District; and Megan Degenfelder, who lost the primary for governor of Wyoming, one of the reddest states in the country, in favor of more center-right candidate Eric Barlow.
Prior losses for Trump-endorsed candidates include Burt Jones, a prominent election denier who was beaten by a self-funding businessman in the primary for Georgia governor; Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), who was unseated after another series of scandals and an anti-LGBTQ rant that bothered even fellow Republicans; and Amir Hassan, who lost an open Michigan congressional race to a candidate who had already dropped out weeks ago, possibly because Republicans didn't trust a Middle Eastern-sounding name.
"While Trump has seen an uptick in voters rejecting his candidates, his endorsements in GOP primaries do continue to be a boost for many candidates looking to become the party nominee," said the report. For example, he made several endorsements against incumbents he perceived as disloyal, mounting "successful revenge campaigns" against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
For his part, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to downplay his failure to save Mills' nomination, blaming the congressman for the failure.
“I told Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, a friend of mine, to get out of the Race, but he wouldn’t listen," said Trump. ”He thought he could win, so who can blame him? We now have a great candidate, Ryan Elijah, running in his place! Ryan stands for EVERYTHING MAGA, and is respected by ALL."