Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Allies Are Favored To Lose Their Primaries
Donald Trump’s poll numbers are sinking his reelection chances and taking some of his most racist and xenophobic allies back to the bottom of the barrel from where they emerged.
Republicans in Kansas and Arizona head to the polls tomorrow to vote on their state’s primary. Two of these positions, Maricopa County Sheriff and the open U.S. Senate seat in Kansas, might be of interest to political spectators — given how these two hardcore Trump loyalists are attempting to get back into public office without the President's help.
A Crook Wants To Become “America’s Toughest Sheriff” Once Again
Joe Arpaio, the unapologetic racist who used his position as sheriff to terrorized immigrant immigrants across Arizona’s Maricopa Country for over two decades, wants his job back.
It’s quite hysterical and borderline pathetic for Arpaio to throw his name in the ballot. Sheriff Joe lost his reelection campaign to Paul Penzone in 2016 and then came in third place during his failed U.S. Senate campaign in 2018.
In 2020, Joe Arpaio, the man who “was convicted of criminal contempt related to his hard-line tactics going after undocumented immigrants” and later pardoned by Donald Trump, wants the keys to his old office back.
Except for this time, Joe Arpaio has a new enemy to fend off — Maricopa County Republicans.
As reported by The New York Times:
The president is flagging in Arizona polls largely because he has alienated suburban Republicans and independent voters, the same ones who drove a spike into the heart of Mr. Arpaio’s political career.
Mr. Trump’s slump in the polls is firmly tethered to the coronavirus, while the most potent attack on Mr. Arpaio among suburban voters is the millions in taxpayer dollars spent on legal settlements largely related to the harsh conditions in his jails and his immigration-related policing.
But the broad strokes of their problems are the same.
This year has provided plenty of ups and downs for communities across the country, but if we can be sure of anything is that Arizona Republicans are ready to vote for the Democratic incumbent.
“I don’t really think of it so much as supporting a Democrat as much as I think about wanting to stand against bigotry, racism and the divisiveness that I attribute to Arpaio when he was in that office,” Sharon Harper, a developer and member of Greater Phoenix Leadership, a mostly Republican-led group, told the Times.
The Narcissist Who Aspires To Become The Next U.S. Senator From Kansas
Before becoming Kansas’s Secretary of State in 2010, Kobach had already set in motion the plans that would eventually leave the state and local governments who bought his xenophobic and racist policies in debt.
In 2006, Kris Kobach told the local government of Valley Park, Missouri, that his immigration ordinance would help combat illegal immigration.
After legal challenges and court battles, ProPublica noted that the Valley Park residents spend $300,000 defending a proposal that would ultimately be rendered toothless by the courts. As of 2018, even “the town’s attorney can’t recall a single case brought under the ordinance.”
It was Kris Kobach who in 2010 helped Arizona Republicans pass SB 1070, a state policy so racist and discriminatory that the Supreme Court would end up gutting years later. The damage to Arizona’s image and economy was so significant that even Governor Ducey is trying (and failing) to repair it today.
Unsatisfied with these losses, Kris Kobach set his sights on voter suppression. In 2011, Kobach would serve as the architect of a state law that would require “people to prove their citizenship before registering to vote.” The law in question was later deemed unconstitutional and thrown out.
In 2018, Kobach would hand the governor’s mansion to the Democrats even after being endorsed by Donald Trump. Ever arrogant, Kobach famously sent his campaign staff to do a walkthrough of what they thought would be their future office as they were down in the polls just weeks before the general election.
Today, Senate Republicans are scrambling to block Kobach from becoming their party’s nominee after tomorrow’s primary. Recent polling shows that “30 percent of GOP primary voters would support the Democrat in the Kansas Senate” should Kobach becomes the nominee.
While it has been great to see Kris Kobach and Joe Arpaio fall on their faces time and time again, especially in the era of Donald Trump, there is little to no reason to try to help them do it again.
Both men got an early nod from Donald Trump — Arpaio got absolved of his crimes via a presidential pardon and Kris Kobach got an endorsement for his failed gubernatorial campaign. However, as Trump continues to sink lower in the national polls ahead of this year’s general election, it seems unlikely that either Arpaio or Kobach will get the boost they need to become a down-ballot candidate in the fall.
How ironic that the political careers of two extreme anti-immigrant politicians (three, if you count Jeff Sessions) are going up in flames and none of the white nationalist sympathizers from the white house are steeping in to help them.
Both Kobach and Arpaio have proven to be radioactive entities on their own, which means that there is no need to pour resources to sink them any lower.
Why take chances to “play with fire” and risk reinvigorating some of the embers of intolerance as they are going out in the dark.
