Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell upsets two-term Governor and 9-term Congressman Mike Castle in the Delaware GOP Senate Primary tonight 53% to 47%. This isn’t a time to over-celebrate and rest on their laurels as they have a tough job ahead in the general election with Chris Coons. It will be a tough race, but there are a few reasons to be optimistic.
Kathryn Jean Lopez hit the nail on the head tonight regarding tonight’s result. It wasn’t so much about O’Donnell as it was about what Castle represented – 30 years of party establishment experience representing an unreliable vote.
He had an R. after his name, but he might as well have been a Democrat. Voters want authenticity. That’s why Murkowski lost. That’s why Castle lost.
The establishment still doesn’t get it, as I said this morning that even if she loses the general election it isn’t like ground is lost for conservatism. If Castle won, conservatism isn’t advanced. At the very least if O’Donnell runs a tough campaign Democrats will spend a ton of dough in Delaware.
O’Donnell will need to spend a lot of money as well, and not one red cent will be coming from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign in an incredibly dumb move politically if not strategically. Well she wasn’t backed by the establishment before, why should we expect them to now?
We’ll see how well the establishment in Delaware backs the nominee when you know they would have expected that from O’Donnell supporters had Castle won. I’m not going to hold my breath.
Even if they don’t support her, we can.
