Trump Selects Senate Candidates... Republicans Pay the Price

Washington – Reuters – President Donald Trump asked voters to imagine his name on the ballots in the midterm congressional elections, personally selecting Republican candidates in some of the most critical Senate races. By Tuesday evening, however, voters had rejected all of Trump’s endorsed candidates in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, and Michigan.

Trump spent more than a decade reshaping the Republican Party around his “Make America Great Again” movement, imposing his choices in primaries and sidelining conservative figures he deemed insufficiently loyal or misaligned with his vision.

Time and again, he favored loyalists and those who shared his political leanings over Republicans with stronger state-level support networks and proven electoral viability, betting that his endorsement could overcome their political weaknesses.

One of the most surprising rejections occurred in South Carolina, a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1998 and where Trump won by an 18-point margin in 2024. Trump backed Darlene Graham, sister of the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. But Democrat Annie Andrews won the seat in a stunning upset.

In North Carolina, Trump endorsed Michael Watley, a former official in the Republican campaign, who suffered a landslide defeat against the state’s former Democratic governor, Roy Cooper.

In Texas, Trump intervened in a contentious Republican primary to support Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was embroiled in scandals, at the expense of Senator John Cornyn, a Trump ally whom some in the party considered a safer choice. Democrat James Talalico secured an easy victory, handing Democrats a seat the party has not held since 1988.

In Michigan, Democrat Abdul Salaam defeated former Representative Mike Rogers, the candidate chosen by Trump.

Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, said, “This is a Trump earthquake,” pointing to voter frustration over rising prices due to tariffs and the war on Iran.

He added, “Trump spent the year talking to voters about what matters to him, not what matters to them.”

Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday evening, “I was not a candidate in the election, and if I had been, we would have won by a landslide!”

A White House official, who requested anonymity, said Trump “promoted many of the candidates on the ballot more effectively than the candidates themselves.”

A senior White House official, also requesting anonymity, told Reuters that the administration had polling data from six weeks prior showing Republicans would lose both the House and the Senate, prompting Trump to launch a month-long national campaign in an attempt to save the party.

Some independent analysts believe the Senate losses bear Trump’s direct imprint. Thomas Kahn, a professor at American University, said Trump’s intervention in the Republican primaries in Texas cost his party a guaranteed seat, noting that nominating Senator John Cornyn “would have assured a Republican victory.”

Kane noted that the situation in North Carolina was equally clear. Last year, the current Republican Senator Tom Tillis said he would not seek re-election following a public dispute with Donald Trump, who had threatened to back a primary opponent after Tillis opposed cuts to Medicaid included in the tax and spending bill proposed by the president.

Kane added, “He effectively handed that seat to the Democrats... Roy Cooper would not have run for office if Tom Tillis had sought re-election.”

Former North Carolina Governor and Republican Pat McCrory said that Trump’s interventions in the Republican primary elections have led to divisions within the party state by state.

He added, “I believe one of President Trump’s greatest strengths was his ability to connect with working-class Americans... He has lost that skill. It would be better for him to regain it for the sake of the country.”