Friday, March 29, 2024

MAJEWSKI: I Am a Republican Who Lost on Tuesday. It Wasn’t Trump’s Fault. It Was the Cowards in D.C.’s ‘McLeadership’.

The corporate media is working overtime to hide the Republican establishment’s failures in the 2022 midterm elections –perpetuating a myth that Donald J. Trump dragged his endorsed candidates down. This is a complete lie, told in order to embolden GOP leaders in Washington D.C., and ignores the fact that in so many instances, this same “McLeadership” set MAGA candidates up for failure.

In my situation, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) – led by Chairman Tom Emmer – backed one of my opponents in the primary. She finished in third place, with less than 30 percent of the total Republican vote. Now Tom Emmer wants a promotion.

During my primary, the local, establishment GOP shunned me. In fact, the Erie County GOP apparatus even went so far as to write a letter to the local liberal media giving them their endorsement, violating their own charter. Right before the primary, establishment operatives from the Lucas County Young Republican Club posted false images on Twitter claiming I sent messages calling Trump an idiot in an effort to sway him from endorsing me. It worked, in part, thwarting an early endorsement. But Trump still graciously gave me a shout out at the rally in Gallion, Ohio, boosting my standing, which led to my primary win.

Right after that, Trump gave me his full endorsement and made a contribution to my campaign. We also had several telephone calls, wherein he offered me his complete support. The NRCC, on the other hand, offered nothing but passive support, dragging their feet behind the scenes. They delayed implementing me into their Young Guns program, which cost our campaign a significant amount of donor exposure.

Finance.

Once I finally did become part of that program, I was given a commitment of $970,000, to be contributed to my campaign, in pre-bought media. I was assigned a field director who was extremely invasive. They demanded involvement in creating and reviewing my campaign budget.

Little did I know, this intervention would leave me desperately dependent on them for all television and radio advertising. And despite my attempts at better judgment, they intervened on fundraising efforts, and in many cases prohibited me from raising money from Washington, D.C.

Messaging.

This involvement also stretched into communications. Their representatives expressed frustration after I took part in interviews and pledged support for President Trump, despite the fact that Trump carried the district during previous election cycles. They simply did not want me talking about him. My staff would tell me the NRCC was angry, and that I needed to tighten it up on their messaging, or lose campaign funds. They hung this threat over our necks like the sword of Damocles.

Then – when the Associated Press put out a hit piece on me – I was instructed how to respond, with NRCC staff actually writing the reply. A reply that I didn’t even totally agree with. But again, I was told to put it out, or I would risk losing their support. I was placed under a gag and told not to speak to media until told otherwise – a strategy which had me sitting around for two days while the story caught wind. Finally, I had enough and spoke out on Facebook, angering the NRCC, and eventually causing them to pull out of the race entirely.

Here’s the kicker: I disproved that hit piece on me, and the Associated Press made multiple corrections. The story didn’t have much impact locally, but it did nationally. What made the most impact was the fact that the NRCC left the campaign to die. Tom Emmer’s team gave my Democrat opponent the chance to tell constituents that the Republican Party had abandoned me. With limited funding, I could not effectively fight back. Meanwhile, my opponent capitalized.

‘It Was a Mistake’.

NRCC leadership continued to call me, apologizing profusely, admitting that it was a mistake for them to pull out. After all that, they still claimed to privately have my back, and told me that I could still win. They claimed their actions were a function of their Political Action Committee (PAC), and that they had no actual control. In hindsight, I realize it all of this was just an effort to keep tabs on me.

A few weeks later they had me conduct a poll with Fabrizio. I was told if I was within margin, their support would return. So much for all the establishment GOP claims that it is Trump who only backs people when he is sure they can win. That’s actually what the GOP – not Trump – does!

The polls showed I was down, but also concluded I was only down because of my inability to fight back against the Democrat narrative. Thanks again, NRCC!

It also showed there were still enough undecided voters, and that all I needed was to get on TV. This still wasn’t good enough for the D.C. Republican clique. They continued to watch my campaign bleed in an R3 winnable race.

Before I was set to speak at a recent rally, I received a call telling me that I was winning, and that “the cavalry was coming”. I assumed this meant they would be buying media. It didn’t happen. They just wanted me to believe they were supporting, in case I won, and in case I had a one-on-one conversation with Donald Trump.

As for President Trump himself, he held a number of rallies in the state and invited me to every one of them. Not only did he recognize me at the rallies, he offered me a chance to speak. He held a telephone town hall that garnered 15,000 attendees from my district. In conclusion to that call a poll question was asked “can President Trump count on you to vote for J.R. Majewski on November 8?”. There was a 99 percent response rate with 86 percent saying yes, four percent saying no, and 9 percent undecided.

Donald Trump’s record speaks for itself. And so does the McLeadership’s.

More From The Pulse