What changed
As Republican prospects for the November 3 midterms worsen, Donald Trump and JD Vance are escalating personal, racial and identity-based attacks on Democratic candidates.
Trump has called Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist,” mocked his name and portrayed him as incompatible with Texas culture because he is vegan. Vance called Texas candidate James Talarico a “freak” and made a joke implying he is gay. Trump has also revived inflammatory claims about Haitians and Africans entering key election states, while questioning whether Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a naturalized citizen, has constitutional rights.
Why it matters
This is more than campaign nastiness. It shows Republican leaders shifting attention from kitchen-table costs to identity and belonging.
The political backdrop is bleak for the party. Trump’s approval rating is 33%, and voters are reported to blame his decisions for worsening the cost of food, housing, gasoline and diesel. Ken Paxton, Trump’s chosen Republican Senate candidate in Texas, is facing a struggling and scandal-plagued campaign, giving Vance’s attacks on Talarico a clear political use: make the Democrat seem unacceptable before voters weigh the candidates’ records.
The strategy may energize the conservative voters Republicans need, but whether it persuades undecided voters remains unknown. What is clear is that Trump and Vance are campaigning in red states where Republicans once expected little resistance. That makes the attacks on El-Sayed and Talarico, whose races are expected to be close, look less like stray insults than a late-campaign effort to turn electoral anxiety into fear.
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