In Maine, the choices were Gideon and a rando named Betsy Sweet who would have done significant worse than Gideon. Gideon ran a poor campaign, but it’s not like she was the handpicked candidate of Chuck Schumer or the DSCC. By most accounts, Collins was on track to either lose or come really close, but many swing voters believed the polls showing 2020 as a Democratic wave election and decided to vote for Collins as a check on Biden/the assumed large Democratic congressional majorities they thought were incoming. Plus, when you factor in the left-wing third party candidate whose supporters were almost to a person second-preferencing Gideon, the margin isn’t nearly as large as it looks.
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As for Cunningham, cross-posted:
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As I’ve explained elsewhere, there are a few common misconceptions in the above posts. A few quick facts that often get overlooked:
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You realize the two claims you’re making here are directly contradictory, right? The DSCC was willing to vet seven candidates and eventually reach more than a decade back in time just so they could avoid the “nightmare scenario” of a Jeff Jackson nomination but they couldn’t bother to try and find a single alternative to nominating Gideon because, according to you, there is only one other Democrat in the entire state of Maine.
Also, looking at Jackson’s final congressional result last year I don’t really see any evidence he’s some horrifically bad candidate.
