The Washington Post: GOP Candidates for Governor Caught Scrubbing Their Websites

The Washington Post: GOP Candidates for Governor Caught Scrubbing Their Websites

GOP candidates struggle to defend support for Trump's unpopular, cost-raising agenda

New reporting from the Washington Post highlights how Republicans running for governor "have quietly been removing mentions of President Donald Trump and his movement from their campaign websites, given the president's slumping approval rating."

Bobby Charles in Maine, Ty Masterson in Kansas, Byron Donalds in Florida, and Christine Drazan in Oregon have been caught scrubbing mentions of Trump and far-right language from their websites as they struggle to defend their support for Trump's unpopular, cost-raising agenda.

As the Post reports: "Just weeks before Election Day, Republicans in competitive races are acknowledging that links to an unpopular Trump at least complicate their paths to victory as the president struggles to convince Americans that the war with Iran was worth starting and that he has a handle on the rising prices they feel every day." DGA Communications Director Sam Newton said: "This is proof that even GOP candidates for governor know their cost-hiking agenda is deeply unpopular. They can try to hide however they want, but that won't change that voters are paying more for gas and groceries every single day."

Read more below:

The Washington Post: Some candidates are scrubbing their websites. Here is why that matters.

• …this year, a lot of attention has been paid to how Republicans have quietly been removing mentions of President Donald Trump and his movement from their campaign websites, given the president's slumping approval rating.

• Take Bobby Charles, the Republican nominee for governor in Maine. The former federal official under George W. Bush embraced Trump during the state's crowded Republican primary, telling reporters he would be similar to Trump and calling the president "an incredible human being."
• Before the primary, his website also listed several "coalitions" that his supporters could join to support them, including MAGA for Bobby Charles and Conservatives for Bobby Charles. Those coalitions have since been removed from Charles's website.

• Charles also had a petition listed on his website asking supporters whether Maine should "open its own Alligator Alcatraz," referring to the detention center in Florida's Everglades where migrants have been subject to controversial treatment. Charles's website referred to the project as "The Lobster Trap," a nod to the state's lobster industry.

• The issue has also affected races for governor. In Kansas, "branding disappeared from [Republican Ty] Masterson's campaign after post-primary refresh." In Florida, Republican Byron Donalds stripped "Trump references from his campaign website." And in Oregon, Republican Christine Drazan went from "Tough. Tested. Conservative" to a "Champion for All" in a website refresh.
• But Republicans removing references to Trump and his movement tells us something: Just weeks before Election Day, Republicans in competitive races are acknowledging that links to an unpopular Trump at least complicate their paths to victory as the president struggles to convince Americans that the war with Iran was worth starting and that he has a handle on the rising prices they feel every day.

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