CANDIDATE MAKES CLOSING ARGUMENT TO VOTERS …
How well does playing the “Trump card” work in South Carolina’s fifth congressional district? Let’s consider the campaign of Camden, S.C. businessman Tom Mullikin – who saw his candidacy go from zero to nearly twenty percent of the vote during the GOP primary election for this seat on May 2.
The key to Mullikin’s success? Touting his proximity to U.S. president Donald Trump.
Now one of the two surviving GOP candidates in this special election – S.C. speaker pro tempore Tommy Pope – is playing his own “Trump card” in the hopes of gaining some separation in his nip-and-tuck battle with ex-S.C. lawmaker Ralph Norman.
Take a look at this video clip released from Pope’s campaign, which bashes Norman for the endorsement his campaign recently received from U.S. Senator Ted Cruz …
(Click to view)
(Via: Tommy Pope)
To be clear: This website has become quite disenchanted with Trump of late. Which is surprising – and disappointing – given the extent to which he blazed such an uncompromising, unapologetic populist trail en route to his upset victory over Hillary Clinton last fall.
We lent our imprimatur to Trump not once but twice, and at this point we have to say his time in office has been a let-down.
GOP voters in the fifth district believe Trump walks on water, though … hence Pope invoking him in his closing argument.
Pope and Norman finished in a dead heat during the first round of GOP voting for this seat on May 2 – with Pope collecting 11,943 votes (30.41 percent) and Norman drawing 11,808 votes (30.07 percent). Because neither candidate was able to eclipse the fifty percent mark in a six-candidate field, they advanced to a runoff election against each other.
Polls show Pope and Norman virtually tied in this race, too – with some surveys suggesting Pope (the early frontrunner for this seat) possibly pulling slightly ahead over the past forty-eight hours.
Do we have a dog in this fight? Hell no.
Even though ads have been running hot and heavy on this site from both candidates …
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… we declined to endorse.
As far as we’re concerned Pope and Norman are cookie-cutter tax-and-spenders – big government “Republicans” who will turn on taxpayers in Washington, D.C. the first opportunity they get.
That’s a shame … but sadly emblematic of our current representative “democracy,” which continues to elevate the very worst sort of people to make the very biggest, most important decisions regarding our lives, liberties and bottom lines.
Anyway …
The winner of this May 16 election will face Republican … err, “Democrat” Archie Parnell and several third party candidates on June 20. And the winner of that race will replace former U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who vacated this seat back in February after he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Given the bright red hue of this district, though, it seems a foregone conclusion that the winner of the “Republican” undercard between Pope and Norman is a virtual lock to capture this seat.
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