Ron Johnson suggests ending Medicare and Social Security as Mandatory Spending Programs

[ProgressiveModerate]

What he said isn’t unreasonable lol, he said that the programs should be shifted to discretionary spending the way the VA’s budget is allocated by congress so that congress has the opportunity (and is on the hook for) fixing these programs and making sure they don’t go bankrupt. Classic clickbait title which is not remotely what he said.

He's running for re-election in a swing state. He should know better than to say things like this that could be easily represented as such and end up in campaign ads.

He doesn't act like he's running in a swing state, and it feels very much that some Republicans are just taking the midterm for granted. It may ultimately pay off for him but this isn't the year where Republicans should need to be playing defense in Wisconsin

[ProgressiveModerate]

Wisconsin: Likely R -> Tossup
US Senate: Tossup -> Lean D

I doubt it'll impact anything. Ron's always been the type to say crazy things but that didn't stop him from outperforming Trump. Russ was better.

Tbf, in 2016 Ron Johnson was relatively undefined and basically ran a slightly more friendly version of Trump's populist's campaign. Over the past 4 years he's shown his true colours though. For many moderates and conservatives who may have voted for Clinton, he was still an accpetable conservative to vote for.

In 2016, Johnson saw very significant crossover voting support in many suburbs, particularly around Milwaukee, which he probably won't get in 2022. That alone (probably) isn't enough to knock him off but will be notable.

Overall though he has been pretty effective at dodging these sorts of controversies who for a lot of other people would be a death kiss. Despite a lot of the things he says, he is quite a smart campaigner and messenger.

[ProgressiveModerate]

The Republicans could end up blowing the midterms. They've recruited some horrific candidates, and these ttpes of comments from the current crop of bozos in charge aren't going to play well.

If Democrats were smart, they'd just run these comments in every media market in the US.

Agreed on this too, 100%.
It's not just Johnson. I can think of several other terrible GOP candidates who have been nominated in competitive races: Mastriano (PA-GOV), Walker (GA-SEN), and Masters (AZ-SEN). Masters, for instance, similar to Johnson, advocated privatising Social Security. Mastriano is just far-right, period, and alienates moderates and Biden voters at every possible turn. And Walker is a joke of a candidate who cannot speak coherently, let alone get through a debate, and who has scores of skeletons (not to mention secret children) in his closet.

There's got to be a "Masters & Johnson" joke lurking somewhere.

They're already both jokes, I think a funnier matchup would be putting Matriano and Walker together in the same room as neither seem to be particular smart when it comes to what they say whereas at least Johnson and Masters seem to be calculated