Not clarified to me. It makes total sense for someone to fund opposition to a candidate who's leading within 5 points or so. So where's the "yet"? Having not yet spent the money donated by Musk, Calvert is down? So?
Rollins was not ahead in the polls back in 2022 and with this political environment where anti-Trump sentiment and pro-Harris sentiment high in CA, IMO it's bad optics for Musk to start getting involved in political campaigns this late. He's not proven to have the smartest political instincts, particularly with his disaster of an interview with Trump. I really am not concerned about anything Musk is doing to impact elections in competitive races like CA-41.
Also, Calvert is a weak GOP incumbent who since running for re-election in a new district that's a R+3 Lean Republican and growing in non-white demographics. He's doing little effort to appeal to these voters besides running a traditional conservative Republican campaign, being anti-choice with his support of the Dobbs decision and being anti-democracy with his signing of the lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
If you're arguing that it's bad for Musk's business interests for him to support an extremist Republican Party, that ship sailed a long time ago. If you're arguing that his money isn't likely to produce results, OK, but it makes perfect sense for a right-wing extremist like him to concentrate on races that look close. I really don't understand your line of argumentation a lot of the time.
I'm arguing that with Musk's agenda, he doesn't have a track record that shows he can influence political races like in CA-41 and I'm not sold on how he can be a credible threat to Democrats in their ability to win races. Whatever his network of donations ends up doing as far as impact, there's no real evidence they are in fact impacting the races they are targeting. Sure, it makes sense to target the closer House races, but I have yet to see he's going to make any more difference than Peter Thiel has done in races besides the OH-SEN race in 2022.
At least with Peter Thiel, he got JD Vance elected to the U.S. Senate in Ohio. However, that's the only politician in Congress that's been elected with his influence that I can recall. With Musk, he has a tendency to get easily distracted and does things randomly with his agenda, especially if it's political.
When the Koch Bros started, they directly targeted the 2010 midterms and flooded the airwaves early on with the Tea Party grassroots involved. That's not what Musk has done here. He's chosen to influence races later in the game after anti-Trump and GOP sentiment is high, which isn't exactly the best timing. With Democrats continuously on message and anti-Trump sentiment high in CA, it's hard for me to see Musk will impact these close races to the degree where they are going to be harder for Democrats to win.
We may dislike them but once thing we cannot deny is that the Koch Bros knew their strategy when they tapped into anti-government sentiment and exploited it for their gain. They were smart strategists back then although nowadays Charles Koch has limited influence as he's anti-Trump and his Libertarian philosophy doesn't exactly mesh with Trump's MAGA agenda.
And yet despise Musk's contributions to the GOP, in CA-41, Rollins is leading in the polls, at least the most recent one I last saw.
Musk is going all over the place with his agenda. Not exactly with the best strategy.
I don't understand the "and yet."
Changed my original comment to clarify.
Unlike back in DK, this platform with The Downballot allows re-edits. :)
Not clarified to me. It makes total sense for someone to fund opposition to a candidate who's leading within 5 points or so. So where's the "yet"? Having not yet spent the money donated by Musk, Calvert is down? So?
Rollins was not ahead in the polls back in 2022 and with this political environment where anti-Trump sentiment and pro-Harris sentiment high in CA, IMO it's bad optics for Musk to start getting involved in political campaigns this late. He's not proven to have the smartest political instincts, particularly with his disaster of an interview with Trump. I really am not concerned about anything Musk is doing to impact elections in competitive races like CA-41.
Also, Calvert is a weak GOP incumbent who since running for re-election in a new district that's a R+3 Lean Republican and growing in non-white demographics. He's doing little effort to appeal to these voters besides running a traditional conservative Republican campaign, being anti-choice with his support of the Dobbs decision and being anti-democracy with his signing of the lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
If you're arguing that it's bad for Musk's business interests for him to support an extremist Republican Party, that ship sailed a long time ago. If you're arguing that his money isn't likely to produce results, OK, but it makes perfect sense for a right-wing extremist like him to concentrate on races that look close. I really don't understand your line of argumentation a lot of the time.
I'm arguing that with Musk's agenda, he doesn't have a track record that shows he can influence political races like in CA-41 and I'm not sold on how he can be a credible threat to Democrats in their ability to win races. Whatever his network of donations ends up doing as far as impact, there's no real evidence they are in fact impacting the races they are targeting. Sure, it makes sense to target the closer House races, but I have yet to see he's going to make any more difference than Peter Thiel has done in races besides the OH-SEN race in 2022.
At least with Peter Thiel, he got JD Vance elected to the U.S. Senate in Ohio. However, that's the only politician in Congress that's been elected with his influence that I can recall. With Musk, he has a tendency to get easily distracted and does things randomly with his agenda, especially if it's political.
When the Koch Bros started, they directly targeted the 2010 midterms and flooded the airwaves early on with the Tea Party grassroots involved. That's not what Musk has done here. He's chosen to influence races later in the game after anti-Trump and GOP sentiment is high, which isn't exactly the best timing. With Democrats continuously on message and anti-Trump sentiment high in CA, it's hard for me to see Musk will impact these close races to the degree where they are going to be harder for Democrats to win.
We may dislike them but once thing we cannot deny is that the Koch Bros knew their strategy when they tapped into anti-government sentiment and exploited it for their gain. They were smart strategists back then although nowadays Charles Koch has limited influence as he's anti-Trump and his Libertarian philosophy doesn't exactly mesh with Trump's MAGA agenda.
OK, I understand what you mean now.