This election season has seen some weird stuff, but one of the oddest phenomenon has been the trashing of Republican candidates by their own family members.
And the media have been all too happy to run with the stories.
It started a month ago when six siblings of a GOP congressman running for re-election appeared in an ad endorsing his opponent. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has nine siblings, and six of them appeared in the ad imploring voters to vote against their own family member, claiming their brother is too extreme.
“I couldn’t be quiet any longer. Nor should any of us be,” said Gosar’s sister, Grace. His brother, David, said the family members had to “stand up for our good name.” Another brother, Tim, said that it was “intervention time.”
“And intervention time means that you go to vote, and you go to vote Paul out,” he said.
Gosar countered by pointing out that the siblings who appear in the ad don’t live in Arizona and are “liberal Democrats” who “put political ideology before family.”
He followed up that tweet by saying “You can’t pick your family.”
Last week, 12 relatives of Nevada Republican Gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt wrote an op-ed lambasting their family member for opposing liberal policies. The op-ed looks like it was written by a Democrat operative, repeating every “scandal” used against the Republican during the election and trashing their own relative as fake and out-of-touch with the people of Nevada. The relatives shamelessly claimed the article was not about politics:
It’s worth saying that this column isn’t about politics. We would be proud to have a Laxalt running for office on Nov. 6, regardless of whether they were Republican or Democrat or independent, so long as we believed that they would be good for Nevada. We’re writing because we care about Nevada and because we know the truth about this candidate. We think that you should, too.
And now this week, the children of a Republican candidate for the Missouri General Assembly are telling voters not to vote for their own father. Reading up on the criticism of Steve West, however, makes this reporter think that these relatives might actually have a point.
“A lot of his views are just very out there,” his daughter, Emily, told the Kansas City Star. “He’s made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesn’t like the Jews.”
Their father has a radio show where he’s claimed “Jewish Cabals” run the Republican Party and molest children.
But still, that stuff is bad on its own.
As for the other candidates, it really doesn’t matter that some family members don’t like someone who is a politician. Just because you share blood or a name with someone doesn’t mean you share political ideology. Heck, Vox’s entire holiday gig is about teaching liberals how to show their family members how insufferable they can be.
But, of course, these are Republicans, and therefore the media is all too gleeful to report when family members don’t share their political views.