RGA in Disarray: Doug Ducey Fails to Protect Incumbent Governors from MAGA Wrath in Two States in the Same Week

RGA Chair Doug Ducey is facing two colossal failures to protect incumbent Republican governors from brutal attacks from their own party in the same week.

In Massachusetts, after threatening to do so for weeks, Trump finally endorsed a candidate in the Massachusetts race for governor. Spoiler alert: it’s not incumbent GOP governor Charlie Baker. Instead, Trump endorsed far-right primary challenger Geoff Diel, and took the opportunity to once again bash Baker for having “done nothing for the Republican Party.”

While Baker has yet to officially announce his campaign for governor, this gives a ton of energy to the in-state rivals from his own party who are already chomping at his heels. And even if he does manage to scrape through to the general election, as a columnist with the Boston Herald notes, “Baker has alienated so many Republicans…he’s made himself vulnerable in a likely small-turnout GOP primary.”

In Idaho, incumbent GOP governor Brad Little is dealing with a quasi-coup every time he leaves the state, when his own lieutenant governor — who is challenging Little in a GOP primary — takes full advantage of her powers as acting governor to take over and implement policies that Little disagrees with before he comes back. This week, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin seized the opportunity to block vaccine mandates, after previously banning mask mandates when Little was away in May.

Trump also recently went after Brian Kemp in Georgia, calling him “a disaster.” While Trump hasn’t officially endorsed another candidate in Georgia, he’s suggested he plans to do so by actively recruiting primary challengers and having his PAC conduct a potential primary match-up poll between Kemp and former U.S. Senator David Perdue that found Kemp on “shaky political ground.”

“With Doug Ducey constantly under fire from Trump and getting attacked from the MAGA wing of his own party, he’s powerless to protect his incumbent governors from facing the same exact problems,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Ducey may be chair of the RGA, but it’s Donald Trump who’s steering the ship, and between the constant infighting and far-right primary challengers, he’s steering the RGA straight into a disastrous upcoming cycle.”