MAGA candidates in key battleground states seek to reenter political arena in 2024
Jack Birle
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Voters in the 2022 elections were not kind to candidates who closely aligned themselves with former President Donald Trump, but many are looking to test their luck again in 2024.
So-called MAGA candidates in the key battleground states of Arizona, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin could derail GOP hopes for regaining the Senate in 2024 after many of them failed to win their elections in 2022.
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In Arizona, a pair of Trump-backed candidates, former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and former senatorial candidate Blake Masters, are eyeing the seat held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) in 2024.
Lake has insisted that her gubernatorial race was “stolen” but has lost all legal battles challenging the legitimacy of the election in which she lost to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ), 50.3% to 49.7%. Masters lost to incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), 51.4%-46.5%, but did concede his election after he was projected to lose.
The Arizona race could turn out to be a unique three-way general election because Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has already announced a challenge to Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in December. An election between Gallego, Sinema, and a Republican candidate could benefit the GOP’s chances of picking up the seat.
Republicans appear to have an excellent chance to pick up another Senate seat in traditionally red Montana, but concerns about candidate quality could derail a pickup opportunity.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) is reportedly eyeing a run for Sen. Jon Tester‘s (D-MT) seat despite losing to him in a 2018 matchup. The 2018 race between Rosendale and Tester saw the Democrat win, 50.3%-46.8%, but it did come during a “blue wave” election cycle when Democrats did well nationwide.
Rosendale recently made headlines when he unknowingly took a photo with a member of a neo-Nazi group while walking between hearings. He apologized and condemned the group, saying he was not aware of who the people were.
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) has also been floated as a possible 2024 challenger. However, he faces a murky past from when he was the head of the Interior Department during the Trump administration and resigned from his post after less than two years on the job amid federal investigations into his travel, political activity, and conflicts of interest. The inspector general at the Interior Department referred Zinke to the Justice Department over the findings, but it declined to prosecute Zinke.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans are seeking to reclaim one of the Keystone State’s Senate seats after losing the other in 2022. Former gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (R-PA) could sink their chances to do so.
Mastriano, who lost to now-Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), 56.5%-41.7%, is shown as leading the GOP primary for Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-PA) seat. The lead comes despite Mastriano being blamed by many for bringing down Republicans’ chances of maintaining its only Senate seat in Pennsylvania in the 2022 election. Mastriano has been a fierce supporter of Trump and was believed to have alienated a lot of voters for his views on abortion and the outcome of the 2020 election.
In a year in which the Senate map looks to favor Republicans and in which Democrats will be on defense in various battleground states, the GOP is looking at Sen. Tammy Baldwin‘s (D-WI) seat as a prime pickup opportunity.
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David Clarke, a firebrand Trump supporter and former Milwaukee sheriff, told the Daily Beast that he “would never take anything off the table as it relates to his future,” signaling that he is mulling a 2024 run. In 2022, however, a different Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate, Tim Michels, lost to incumbent Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI), spelling trouble for campaigns of Trump-aligned candidates in Wisconsin in the future.
Republicans are in the minority in the Senate 49-51 but would only need to pick up a net of two seats or pick up a net of one seat and win the presidential election to win back the majority. The GOP’s best pickup opportunities for Senate seats in 2024 look to be in Ohio, Montana, and West Virginia.