OPINION:
Things are looking up for the GOP around the country. On Tuesday, a California Republican will likely take the first step toward recapturing a U.S. Senate seat that hasn’t been in the party’s hands in 33 years.
Steve Garvey, the former Dodgers MVP, leads Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Katie Porter going into the state’s free-for-all primary, according to a Berkeley IGS Poll released Friday. Once the votes are tallied, the top-two finishers will face off in the November general election.
Golden State Democrats crafted this peculiar mechanism to exclude Republicans from the general election ballot, as a divided GOP usually fails to muster enough support to break into the top-two spots. This makes Mr. Garvey’s expected success all the more remarkable, as the baseball great has spent a mere $1 million compared to the $45 million in attack ads expended by Mr. Schiff and the $19 million by Ms. Porter.
Mr. Garvey will have to be on his A-game to pull off a general-election upset, but for him to come this close shows even the denizens of Democratic strongholds are entertaining second thoughts about the country’s direction.
Even Maryland is considering a change. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. David Trone, a Democrat, in the race for retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin’s seat. As a popular former governor, Mr. Hogan has already proved his ability to prevail in a statewide contest.
Savvy operators like Mr. Hogan and Mr. Garvey have picked up on the desire for a new direction. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with the way things are going — and that has consequences.
Republicans edge Democrats in the generic congressional ballot, and major polls now show Donald Trump would beat Joe Biden in a head-to-head contest. Surveys by CBS News and the New York Times have the 45th president ahead of the 46th by four points. Fox News and the Wall Street Journal say the lead is 2 percent. Bloomberg says Mr. Biden has fallen behind in all seven battleground states likely to decide the outcome.
These results are no accident. Democrats have sabotaged themselves with, for instance, soft-on-crime policies. Big-box stores like Walmart and Target have given up on serving customers in blue city neighborhoods where shoplifting sprees have become a daily occurrence. The CVS in Columbia Heights closed last week after looting left shelves bare.
Left-wing strategists cynically calculated that unleashing felons and leaving the border wide open would bring in Black and Hispanic votes. A Gallup survey shows the opposite, as Democrats lost 11 points of support among Blacks and 19 points among Hispanics.
Muslim-Americans and some leftists are also upset with Joe Biden’s Middle East strategy. They registered their discontent in last week’s Michigan Democratic primary by casting 18% of the vote for anyone other than the Big Guy.
A lot of time remains before voting season begins, which is why the GOP ought to be wary of overconfidence — especially after the promised “red wave” never materialized in the 2022 congressional midterms.
Mr. Garvey’s primary performance, however, ought to provide an early glimpse at just how strong the GOP’s case will be going into November.
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