Little went the Trump administration’s way this Tuesday. After U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was ruled guilty of fraud and his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to other financial crimes, his pick in the Wyoming Republican gubernatorial primary lost.
In a last minute endorsement, on Tuesday, Trump tweeted support for longtime GOP megadonor Foster Friess, but he came in second in the race. He finished with only 26 percent of the vote to State Treasurer Mark Gordon’s 32.9 percent. Friess managed to win a number of counties in the state, but it wasn’t enough. His portion of the vote translates to just under 30,000 supporters across Wyoming, while Gordon’s represents 37,766 votes with most precincts reporting.
Trump had originally endorsed Friess because of supposed allegiance to some of the core tenets of the president’s platform.
Tuesday, he wrote on Twitter:
‘To the incredible people of the Great State of Wyoming: Go VOTE TODAY for Foster Friess – He will be a fantastic Governor! Strong on Crime, Borders & 2nd Amendment. Loves our Military & our Vets. He has my complete and total Endorsement!’
In reality, in addition to the ideological alignment, Trump has a good reason to support Friess. He was a “major financial supporter” of the Trump candidacy, CNN describes, maintaining a personal net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars. Back in 2012, he helped fund former Pennsylvania GOP U.S. Senator Rick Santorum’s 2012 bid for the presidency, at which time the candidate got significantly farther than he did in 2016. In 2012, he actually came in second, although in 2016 he suspended his campaign after finishing last place in the Iowa caucuses, the first primary contest of the cycle.
Santorum, after losing, ended up a Trump supporter — although he didn’t endorse him at first — so Friess’ connection to the repeatedly failed candidate doesn’t tie him outside of the Trumps’ side of the GOP.
Donald Trump Jr. had previously published a piece in support of Friess’ candidacy. Posting on August 5 in the Casper Star-Tribune, Trump Jr. wrote:
‘My father needs a fighter by his side in Wyoming, someone who is committed to enacting his America First agenda and I know that Foster will fight tooth and nail to help make that a reality.’
Apparently Wyoming voters weren’t anxious to fall in line behind Trump Jr.’s “America First” rhetoric.
Although Trump has touted his endorsement record as exceptional, candidates he’s backed have repeatedly come up short. For instance, in the Alabama Republican U.S. Senate primary last year, he backed incumbent Luther Strange who eventually lost to Roy Moore. Also last year, he backed Republican Ed Gillespie in the general election race to be Virginia’s governor, but he lost by a significant margin to Democrat Ralph Northam.
In the time since, some of his picks for the U.S. House have also either failed entirely or come up short. Democrat Conor Lamb beat Republican Rick Saccone in a Pennsylvania district Trump won by a significant margin in 2016, and his pick for an Ohio seat — Republican Troy Balderson — barely eked out a win in a district Trump also won by a significant margin.
The developments are all leading towards the midterms later this year when Democrats hope to take back control of one if not both houses of Congress.
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