Whether the disappointment of the run-offs will prompt a wider Republican break from Mr Trump is unclear.Many thought that defeat in November would break his ironclad hold over the party.Not at all.Both of the incumbent Republican senators in the run-off called for the resignation of the Republican secretary of state who oversees the electionfor failing to endorse Mr Trump’s view of the world(which is that it is impossible for him to lose an election without unspecified masses of fraud occurring).They also expressed support for Republicans refusing to certify the results of the presidential election.Mr Trump’s antics left both Republican senators in an impossible position―reliant on the flailing, departing president for his devoted voters,and unwilling and unable to cross him even as he descended into dark, anti-democratic fantasies.This tied Republican voters, most of whom say they believe the president’s theories about voter fraud, in chains of illogic.Why turn out to vote in a state that Mr Trump says was hopelessly crippled by fraud just two months ago?If the state’s Republican governor and secretary of state could not be trusted to safeguard the last election,why bother with this one?Why was the battle cry of the Republicans’ Senate run-off campaign to keep socialism at bay if Mr Trump (not Mr Biden) was to be president?Whether Mr Trump so demotivated Republican voters as to have sabotaged an expected victory for his party is hard to know in a race that is so close.
