Who was the most overrated Republican of the 2022 cycle?

[EJ24]

?

[Xing]

WI: Tiffany Smiley, though of these, Kari Lake.

[Spectator]

Easily Adam Laxalt since he was seen as the "strongest" GOP challenger by and large. But that was only a product of the others being that much worse rather than any strengths of his own. Laxalt was a nepotistic election denier without any real strengths of his own. He nearly lost in the red wave of 2014 in Nevada when about every other Republican was winning by double digits. Dude was not strong. He just looked a little more normal compared to the disaster artists that were Oz, Walker, Masters, and Bolduc.

[EJ24]

Easily Adam Laxalt since he was seen as the "strongest" GOP challenger by and large. But that was only a product of the others being that much worse rather than any strengths of his own. Laxalt was a nepotistic election denier without any real strengths of his own. He nearly lost in the red wave of 2014 in Nevada when about every other Republican was winning by double digits. Dude was not strong. He just looked a little more normal compared to the disaster artists that were Oz, Walker, Masters, and Bolduc.

I also think a lot of people on this forum (myself included) should learn a valuable lesson after this year: early voting data means jack squat. People here had Cortez-Masto DOA based on that. Go back and take a look at the posts.

[Gracile]

Allan Fung, who gave us this gem:

https://twitter.com/AllanFungRI/status/1589945167033020418

[Pericles]

Oz was predicted by most people to win by a few points and he lost by 5, even though he was known to be a terrible candidate he was still overrated. Bolduc and Masters were also overestimated but both were generally expected to lose. Lake and Laxalt barely lost so the prospect of them winning wasn't crazy in hindsight.

[Figueira]

Easily Adam Laxalt since he was seen as the "strongest" GOP challenger by and large. But that was only a product of the others being that much worse rather than any strengths of his own. Laxalt was a nepotistic election denier without any real strengths of his own. He nearly lost in the red wave of 2014 in Nevada when about every other Republican was winning by double digits. Dude was not strong. He just looked a little more normal compared to the disaster artists that were Oz, Walker, Masters, and Bolduc.

I also think a lot of people on this forum (myself included) should learn a valuable lesson after this year: early voting data means jack squat. People here had Cortez-Masto DOA based on that. Go back and take a look at the posts.

Ralston, the guy who actually knows how to interpret Nevada EV data, said that it would be extremely close, which is why he gave more of a vibes-based prediction (which ended up being correct).

[Ferguson97]

Out of this list, I don't see how the answer is anyone except Adam Laxalt or maaaaaybe Kari Lake.

[KaiserDave]

Easily Adam Laxalt since he was seen as the "strongest" GOP challenger by and large. But that was only a product of the others being that much worse rather than any strengths of his own. Laxalt was a nepotistic election denier without any real strengths of his own. He nearly lost in the red wave of 2014 in Nevada when about every other Republican was winning by double digits. Dude was not strong. He just looked a little more normal compared to the disaster artists that were Oz, Walker, Masters, and Bolduc.

Totally agreed with this, had Oz, Walker, Masters, and Bolduc not been in the picture we'd be discussing how horrible of a candidate Laxalt was, and he definitely was. An empty suit coasting entirely on a family name with terrible political instincts.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Walker

[here2view]

Laxalt, but there were people saying Kari Lake and even Masters were #goodcandidates before November.

[wbrocks67]

Yeah, Kari Lake probably from the list. Adam Laxalt and Oz close second.

Smiley and O'Dea would be ones not from the list. Most of the nonpartisan polling said Smiley would get 42% and she got.. 42.7%.

O'Dea flopped harder than Trump.

[Antonio the Sixth]

By the pundits, Lake.

By Atlas, Laxalt.

By myself, honestly probably Oz.

[Miked0920]

Id say Adam Laxalt was the most overrated GOP candidate. He was running in a dead-even swing state against a Vulnerable and Generic Democrat in Catherine Cortez Masto. Although Laxalt already had been damaged due to losing the 2018 Nevada Governor race to Steve Sisolak.

Tiffany Smiley and Joe O'Dea in Washington and Colorado respectively, were pretty overrated as well. I never fully bought the hype of those candidates from some Republicans. Washington is just about too blue period to elect a Republican nowadays, and Colorado is fairly democratic and mostly gone for the GOP and both a statewide and especially federal level.

[Suburbia]

Lake, Laxalt.

[UncleSam]

By the pundits, Lake.

By Atlas, Laxalt.

By myself, honestly probably Oz.

This. I definitely thought Oz was going to do better than his polling and instead he did worse. I never bought the Atlas Laxalt hype, and the Lake hype in the media was just weird.

[scutosaurus]

The fact that anyone thought O'Dea would even come close was always blatantly laughable

[Progressive Pessimist]

Lake, Laxalt, O'Dea, and Smiley.

It's hard to pick among those four.

[wbrocks67]

The fact that anyone thought O'Dea would even come close was always blatantly laughable

Agreed, though I don't think anyone saw the Bennett +15 win incoming. That was pretty shocking. Made O'Dea look like even more of a joke that he barely outperformed Ganahl

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

I went with O'Dea, who was propped up almost like a 'new way' for Colorado Republicans and yet likely never had a remote chance of winning.

At least Laxalt came very close to winning. O'Dea ended up underperforming the GOP candidates in Washington and New York

[scutosaurus]

The fact that anyone thought O'Dea would even come close was always blatantly laughable

Agreed, though I don't think anyone saw the Bennett +15 win incoming. That was pretty shocking. Made O'Dea look like even more of a joke that he barely outperformed Ganahl

I thought he was going to outperform Biden but I'm also the single most insufferable Bennet hack on the planet

[Senator Incitatus]

Laxalt (or possibly Lake) was the one whose chances of winning were most overrated in retrospect, but the one whose overall amorphous "quality" was the most overrated was clearly O'Dea. I would say Smiley, but nobody seemed to rate her so much as they underrated Murray.

[President Johnson]

WI: Tiffany Smiley, though of these, Kari Lake.

Pretty much this.

Smiley was probably an attempt by mostly right-wing pollsters to force the narrative of a competitive race which totally evaporated on election day.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Laxalt. Smiley in close second place.

[John Dule]

Laxalt still came very close to unseating CCM. At the same time, the mere fact that anyone thought Masters could possibly win made him "overrated."