Republicans are widely projected to win control of both chambers of Congress tonight and end the control of the Democrat trifecta that has gripped Washington and drained the pockets of the American people for the past two years.
The thing to look at after that though will be who truly holds the strings of power on Capitol Hill and, by extension, over the American people.
The electorate as a whole has seemingly shifted away from supporting establishment politicians regardless of party – both Democrats and Republicans.
Many insurgent, political outsider candidates who don’t always toe the party line won primaries across the country, and if the polls are accurate, they will win again tomorrow and be sworn into Congress in January.
Some even beat out candidates who were hand-picked and bankrolled by the Republican establishment forces — controlled by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
In some cases, animosity has persisted between party leaders and untraditional candidates.
One such situation is currently playing out in Arizona, where McConnell’s forces pulled out the rug from under the state’s GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters and sent Senate Leadership Fund dollars to protect vulnerable RINO Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska instead.
Still, Masters didn’t seem too perturbed by the move. He told The Federalist this week that he tries “not to feel entitled to other people’s money.” Masters also added the following:
“That’s a left-wing value. I’d be like [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] if I felt entitled to other people’s money. So when Mitch McConnell cut funding for Arizona, I could have gotten mad, I could have just started throwing bombs at him in the media, but I didn’t.”
The Federalist’s Tristan Justice writes
“Masters didn’t need to. Where McConnell has chosen to spend money this cycle speaks for itself. Instead of throwing support and funding behind Masters to flip a seat to the GOP, he has bent over backward to protect old-guard Republicans from insurgent GOP candidates who have pledged not to support the octogenarian lawmaker for another term in leadership, even if it means sacrificing chances to reclaim a Senate majority.
If Masters prevails on Tuesday without McConnell’s aid, it will be yet another sign of the new era of Republican politics, in which young, populist outsiders forge a new GOP without asking the establishment for permission.
Masters, who announced during the crowded state primary that he would cast his vote for a more conservative alternative for leader should one arise, never bowed to McConnell in order to garner the Republican Senate chief’s approval and the money that comes with it. McConnell made clear this fall that his money comes with strings attached, and Masters was willing to cut them.
“I’ve said I’m going to vote for the most conservative person running,” Masters told The Federalist, maintaining a posture of defiance to the party establishment that has come to define his campaign.
One man who is still commonly regarded as an outsider of the D.C. swamp despite spending four years in the White House is none other than the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
Trump is still raking in the cash by the boatloads into his Save America PAC, and he’s not afraid to share it with the candidates following in his footsteps.
Bloomberg reports that “former President Donald Trump dug into his $92 million war chest, the largest in the Republican Party, and sent $20 million in October to an allied super PAC that’s supporting Senate candidates he’s endorsed, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, donated the money to Make America Great Again Inc., which raised $32.1 million in the first 19 days of October.
Some have accused Trump of not sharing his hauls with candidates and hoarding cash to bolster his own political ambitions — but at least until Tuesday night, Trump is happy to play kingmaker. What happens after that remains to be seen.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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I have sent my congressman and senators a letter of notice that he two MaC’s not be elected to leadership roles. They have shown to be unreliable as the leaders of the respective houses.
Dump McCarthy use MTG for House Speaker, tired of these damn RINOs