"The Surge" a weekly hilarious, spot-on column by Jim Newell, Slate

"This was a lousier week than normal. And while we’re not going to allow ourselves to get optimistic that Congress could act following a school shooting, we will at least take a look at where things are.

"The one good thing that happened, though, is that Donald Trump tried to kick a whole bunch of people who refused to overturn election results out of office, and face-planted. Let’s start with the most surprising one.

Brad Raffensperger
Trump’s worst defeat yet.

"Donald Trump did not have the bad primary night Tuesday that was predicted. He had a worse one.

"In the race that garnered the most attention, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp bested Trump-backed challenger David Perdue, who ran on a platform of pretending to believe that the 2020 election was stolen. Kemp’s win was predicted, though the 52-point margin wasn’t.

"The most damaging defeat for Trump, though, was Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s outright win—no runoff—over his challenger, Rep. Jody Hice.

"Raffensperger had called out Trump’s “stolen election” bullshit head-on when Trump was trying to overturn it, and he seemed to be a dead man walking in his next primary. A sitting congressman, for example, doesn’t just jump into a secretary of state race if he thinks he might not win it.

"It’s too early to say that Trump’s grip over the GOP has gone limp. It could just be that he’d better think twice about organizing against entrenched state-government incumbents. But his Georgia wipeout will encourage more Republicans to at least test that strength, and the 2024 GOP presidential field may have just gotten a little larger."

[slate.com]