'Bad news': Wave of GOP retirements signals battles ahead

[dalton99a]

https://hosted.ap.org/article/755ac1dbd8c7dd6219af73f1b185d49a/bad-news-wave-gop-retirements-signals-battles-ahead

Mar. 9, 2021 5:10 AM EST
'Bad news': Wave of GOP retirements signals battles ahead
By STEVE PEOPLES
AP National Political Writer

This is not the way Republicans wanted to begin the year.

Missouri's Roy Blunt on Monday became the fifth Republican senator to announce he will not seek reelection, a retirement wave that portends an ugly campaign season next year and gives Democrats fresh hope in preserving their razor-thin Senate majority.

History suggests Republicans are still well-positioned to reclaim at least one chamber of Congress next year. But officials in both parties agree that the surge of GOP departures will make the Republicans' challenge more difficult in the Senate.

“Any time you lose an incumbent, it’s bad news,” said Republican strategist Rick Tyler, who briefly worked for failed Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin nearly a decade ago. “Missouri’s not necessarily a safe state for Republicans. Democrats have won there.”

The 71-year-old Blunt's exit is a reminder of how the nation's politics have shifted since the rise of Donald Trump. Blunt and his retiring GOP colleagues from Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alabama represent an old guard who fought for conservative policies but sometimes resisted the deeply personal attacks and uneven governance that dominated the Trump era.

Their departures will leave a void likely to be filled by a new generation of Republicans more willing to embrace Trumpism — or by Democrats.

[JohnSJ]

1. The republican has become an extremist racist, sexist, bigoted political party.

The question is how many anti-trump republicans are there?

There is no doubt we saw some of that in the 2020 election. Many of them I believe became independents.

How many became independents will determine the viability of the Republican Party

[mucifer]

2. How many of these seats can the democrats take?

[JohnSJ]

6. I think with the right candidate, states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Missouri offer

great opportunities

[uponit7771]

4. +1, connect the remaining to Trump more ... Make them mud to the middle

[JohnSJ]

7. I think so. I am hoping for Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Missouri can help us get a

healthy majority in the Senate

[Laelth]

3. The "uneven governance ... of the Trump era."

Now, THAT is a world-class euphemism.

That’s not just putting lipstick on a pig. That’s a full facial, premium haircut, tummy tuck, face-lift, and four-trotter pedicure ... on a pig.



-Laelth

[Iliyah]

5. Bad news for the GOP? . . .

Eff the GOP, bad news for the USA because of more psychopathic and more vitriol will be coming out of the current GOP which is now Qanon.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Unfortunately, Blunt's wingnut successor will make him sound like Lincoln

[rainin]

9. Every one of them voted to acquit. Not one of them upheld their oath to the constitution.

Why don't democrats join forces with moderate republicans to push a moderate republican through the primary? It's not a foregone conclusion that these old timers will be replaced with more extreme candidates.

[MineralMan]

10. I hope all of those seats end up with a right-wing Trumper

winning the primary in those states. That will be our best shot at electing a Democrat in such states. The louder and more obnoxious the GQP candidate, the better.