Losing Is a Choice

By Isaac Schorr

Tuesday, November 08, 2022

 

No one forced New Hampshire Republicans to choose Don Bolduc, the spineless conspiracy theorist, as their nominee to serve in the United States Senate. But they did, and now the race has been called for incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan with less than 40 percent of the expected vote reporting.

 

No one forced Pennsylvania Republicans to choose Doug Mastriano, a dyed-in-the-wool stop-the-stealer who attended the rally that led to the riot at the Capitol Building in January 2021, to be their gubernatorial nominee. But they did, and now not only has his race been called, but his candidacy might be the difference between Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz making Mitch McConnell majority leader again and letting Chuck Schumer hold onto the title.

 

There are a number of other statewide candidates who may or may not lose winnable races — Blake Masters in Arizona and Herschel Walker in Georgia come to mind — and it appears that, while the GOP will retake the House of Representatives, it will not be by the margin it had hoped to.

 

Sometimes, events out of a party’s control condemn them to electoral losses. But oftentimes, losing is a choice, and the fact remains that in several states, Republican voters simply chose to lose.