I don't see why Walker is considered a "weak candidate" while Laxalt is considered a "strong candidate."
Laxalt has an electoral history and did pretty decently in 2018, while Walker doesn't have an electoral history. That said, I'm not sure the gaffes Walker is displaying in this thread are the type that loses votes: it's not that he's expressing opinions that voters strongly disagree with so much as he's just speaking ineloquently. They're the same kind of thing -- a significantly worse version of it, but still -- as the Biden gaffes from 2019. Walker's actual political instincts distinctly seem fine; in particular his refusal to go along with Trump's instructions for endorsing other candidates in Georgia shows that he isn't, like, some puppet.
Basically, the Laxalt campaign actually understands how federal races are won in a midterm under an unpopular President from the other party, whereas the Walker campaign really doesn’t.
Is there a reason to think the people on the Walker
campaign are these ridiculous incompetents? I think given his moves so far whoever is advising the guy is doing a pretty good job. I understand the instinct that Walker might be likely to say something very weird that would hurt his campaign -- it's probably a correct instinct -- but
on the present trajectory I don't really see him performing any worse than Generic R.
I strongly suspect his campaign will collapse under scrutiny and he'll either drop out or his support will crater.
I agreed with you a year ago but, like, this didn't pan out. If the general election campaign is the same quality as his primary election campaign, then given the lean of the year Herschel Walker will virtually certainly be a Senator.
(Also, note that Laxalt got a cleared primary field but is currently in the fight of his life against an out-of-nowhere challenger, while Walker faced a field with a statewide official and other people with national connections and still demolished them.)
