Republicans are paying a price for their extremism

The GOP’s self-destructive primaries have cost it a lot of power, particularly in the Senate.

By Ezra Klein@ezraklein Dec 14, 2017, 10:50am EST

It’s an article of faith among many Democrats that Republicans have somehow escaped the electoral consequences for the increasing extremism of their party. Doug Jones’s narrow victory over Roy Moore on Tuesday night looked, to many liberals, like a rare exception. But as political scientist Matt Glassman points out, it’s far from alone.

Starting around the 2010 Tea Party surge, Republican voters have repeatedly chosen the most extreme candidates during primaries, and have paid a real electoral price, particularly in the Senate.

In Nevada’s 2010 Senate race, State Assembly member Sharron Angle beat state Sen. Sue Lowden to face Democrat Harry Reid. Lowden was expected to easily beat Reid, but Angle was a weak candidate who, among other things, said that Sharia law had taken over cities in Michigan and Texas and that the health care system was better when poor patients bartered for care with doctors. Reid won.

* In Delaware’s 2010 Senate race, Christine O'Donnell, who had never held elected office, beat at-large Rep. Mike Castle in the GOP primary. O’Donnell proved one of the strangest candidates in memory, and lost a race that Castle almost certainly would have won. Republicans also lost the House seat Castle vacated.

* In Colorado’s 2010 Senate race, Tea Party favorite Mike Buck beat Lt. Gov. Jane Norton in the Republican primary, and then lost narrowly to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in the general. It’s widely believed that Norton, a more moderate candidate who didn’t have Buck’s background of extreme comments on abortion, would’ve won.