Had this been a more favorable election cycle, Musk would have been able to lord over the candidates the amount of money he spent on them. As it is, he shot his shot and no campaign should want to accept his contributions again.
Paxton was king of the scumbags, between his history of helping pedos, his impeachment from his own party and his philandering and partying with fugitives in Dubai.
Also I was sure the ICE surge at the start of the trump administration was political suicide even if you agree with it. Didn't Hispanics carry Trump in '24?
I live in Ohio, and found Ramaswamy to be an awful, uncharismatic man who never learned when to speak and when to keep his mouth shut. If he could keep from insulting the voter base and slandering people for being raped, he may have won. I know someone personally, who faced similar abuse to Acton as a child and was instantly mobilized against Ramaswamy despite being usually disinterested in politics.
Genuinely, what were the Republicans thinking? Did they belive the 2024 election was the end of history?
"If you vote this time, you'll never have to vote again", so, maybe?
Isolating very specific populations that force swing districts, then hitting them with wedge issues targeted to their specific demographic, is the new hotness that Trump 2016 really made exceptional use of. Now, whether this process was all the way legal, that's another conversation, and odds are your mind's made up already so I can just keep my toe out of that pool.