How to destroy a conservative party, by the GOP geniuses at Turning Point USA
Only the Arizona Republican Party and its Turning Point masters could stack up losses like this in a battleground state.
The numbers are shrouded in memory, but it’s believed that the Washington Generals basketball team won a grand total of three games against the Harlem Globetrotters going back to 1952.
That would make the Generals’ cumulative record 3-16,000.
You read that right. Three wins to roughly 16,000 defeats.
Such a record of futility would seem unbreakable, but a challenger has emerged in the conservative youth movement Turning Point USA, which aims to turn college towns and U.S. states a vibrant shade of Republican red.
So far, they’ve proven they’re a more dependable bluing agent.
Turning Point USA has a dismal record
In the years they’ve worked to rally conservative college students, the election results have been ... well ... I’ll let this July 21 Politico headline tell the story:
“How College Towns Are Decimating the GOP.”
Reports Politico: “Name the flagship university – Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, among others – and the story tends to be the same. If the surrounding county was a reliable source of Democratic votes in the past, it’s a landslide county now.”
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Having unleashed their genius on the college circuit, Turning Point leaders Tyler Bowyer and Jake Hoffman in 2019 decided they’d do a pilot project in state politics. They would engineer the takeover of the Arizona Republican Party.
They began by helping Trump fanatic and conspiracy fabulist Kelli Ward get elected chair of the Arizona GOP.
Republicans have lost plenty in Arizona
The results have been remarkable, to say the least.
Today, the Democratic Party holds Arizona’s two U.S. Senate seats, the governor’s office, the Secretary of State’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and could conceivably win majorities in the state House and Senate.
Not satisfied with this record of failure, Bowyer on Sunday called for someone more conservative to run against GOP Congressman Juan Ciscomani in the 2024 Republican primary.
“Somebody prominent needs to step up & primary Juan Ciscomani,” he tweeted on Sunday. “You would get the Trump + grassroots endorsements & annihilate his short Congressional record.”
If your aim is to catch the Washington Generals, this is brilliant strategy.
Now they want to take out Juan Ciscomani?
Juan Ciscomani is a rising star in the Republican Party, not just in Arizona, but nationally.
He was a kid who grew up in Tucson and became the first in his family to graduate from college.
He worked for the university and later the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, before becoming an adviser to then-Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
In 2005, Ciscomani was not yet an American citizen.
By 2022, he had become the first naturalized American citizen from Mexico elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona.
Ciscomani has it all.
GOP mess: McCarthy booted from House speaker, Trump gagged. The Republican Party is an unserious mess.
Ciscomani is a Republican who can win
He’s a family man who exudes warmth and decency. He’s a telegenic leader of real depth, and he’s an unapologetic evangelist for the American Dream. He’s also anchored with the good sense to steer clear of his party’s most radical elements.
I believe in the American dream. But it won't be around for my kids to inherit.
In southern Arizona where Republicans go to lose, he won a grueling victory by a single percentage point over his Democratic rival. If MAGA Republicans in Phoenix now insist on replacing him with one of their own in 2024, the Democrats will be the first to cheer.
So smitten with Ciscomani were national Republicans that they invited the freshman lawmaker to deliver the GOP’s Spanish-language response to Joe Biden’s Feb. 7 State of the Union address.
While Ciscomani has been hammering the Biden administration for its soft border enforcement and sky-high illegal crossings, Bowyer has been calling for Ciscomani’s ouster for supporting then-GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the budget deal.
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If it’s purity tests you want, how about one for Donald Trump?
The guy who recently pulled the rug out from pro-life conservatives by telling NBC News’ Kristen Welker he’d compromise with Democrats on abortion.
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Recognizing what is happening in the state party, longtime Republican strategist Mike Noble tweeted, “Ciscomani is arguably the best the AZ GOP has on the bench for a future statewide candidate who can actually win in the General Election, and yet, some Republicans want to primary him? This is the insanity that is the @AZGOP.”
Undaunted, the Turning Point brain trust is proving they may have the persistence to overtake the Washington Generals and their world’s worst record.
What would make that truly astounding is that Turning Point is actually trying to win.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic, where this column first published. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.