There were caveats. Trump helped Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) defeat a fellow Republican congressman in West Virginia, and he endorsed Ohio’s J.D. Vance as he was gaining ground in the state’s U.S. Senate primary. His early support for Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) helped him cruise to the U.S. Senate Republican nomination in North Carolina. Trump stuck with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in his race against George P. Bush, which helped Paxton humiliate the state’s most storied Republican political family.
But Georgia was a debacle for the former president, worse than his candidates were willing to imagine before the polls closed. Former senator David Perdue (R), who’d told reporters that he could “guaran-damn-tee” that polls showing him down by 30 points were wrong, ended up losing to Gov. Brian Kemp (R) by much more — 52 points. Trump’s endorsement of John Gordon, a businessman and attorney who challenged Attorney General Chris Carr (R) over his inability to overturn the 2020 election, did practically nothing; Gordon lost by 48 points.
