To cast doubt on her conservative integrity, they circulated one of Barnett’s tweets in July 2020 with the hashtags #BLM and #DefundThePolice – two cohesive cries from racial justice activists that Republicans took advantage of in the last election cycle.
But a video accompanying the tweet told a very different story. “Removing the police is stupid,” Barnett said through tears in front of the camera. “Don’t fall for those white liberals who come to our communities and tell us we need to get rid of law enforcement.
The situation has made Trump feel “nervous about Oz’s prospects,” according to a Trump adviser who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“For the past five months, he has been told that the only threat to Oz is David McCormick. This is a turnaround that no one has planned to come, “the adviser said.
Another person close to Trump, who supports Oz, described the situation as a “nightmare”. In interviews with CNN, the man and three other Trump allies described Barnett receiving approval late Tuesday from social conservative groups Susan B. Anthony List and CatholicVote and a seven-figure investment from the Growth Club as a major threat to both Oz and McCormick in the last section of the competition.
In an unexpected move Tuesday, the Growth Club announced it would spend $ 1.9 million to promote Barnett on Pennsylvania between now and the May 17 primary, a significant development for a candidate who has spent $ 160,000 on television since it launched a campaign in April 2021 in a race that resulted in nearly $ 50 million in combined costs from its opponents and outside groups.
“I don’t think people expected Katie Barnett to climb that hard last week,” said one of Trump’s allies. “The biggest story in the last week of this race is her momentum and so she gets both won and paid media. It’s two to one.”
Barnett’s late rise in the polls also left her opponents little time to change the way voters see her, leaving her in a less vulnerable position than Oz and McCormick, who have been working for months to portray each other in an unflattering light. .
“You can be negative about it, but you only have one week to present it in a negative way, and I don’t think there is much from a conservative point of view. I haven’t heard of anything where I’ve thought, “Oh, yes, that would be very effective,” said Trump’s ally.
Oz himself called Barnett a “mystery” during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox on Wednesday night, expressing concern about her eligibility amid her late election.
“She’s a mysterious person, we don’t know much about her and we need to be able to learn, and she doesn’t want to share,” Oz said.
The former president is still deciding if there is anything he can do to give Oz an extra boost in the race, Trump’s adviser said, noting that Trump already plans to host a televised rally and address Republican voters with automatic calls. before primary. Trump also held a pre-election rally outside Pittsburgh last Friday, where he repeatedly broke up at McCormick to turn voters against him.
“He is an absolute candidate for special interests and globalists and the Washington Establishment … David is completely controlled … by Mitch McConnell, the old crow, the old broken crow,” Trump said.
It should be noted that the former president did not mention Barnett even once in his speeches.
Create a hole
In Trump’s orbit, Barnett’s rapid rise from obscurity to a legitimate rival is seen as a direct result of the muddy sling race between Oz and McCormick over the past few months. This is a classic case of a candidate moving in the middle, allies of the former president said, one of whom likened Barnett to Senator Deb Fisher, whose clear campaign defeated two well-funded tea party winners in the Nebraska Senate GOP primary in 2012
McCormick and Oz, both self-funded, have spent more than $ 10 million on television commercials so far, most of it on malicious commercials to attack each other. Although Oz received official support from Trump last month, McCormick continued to raise questions about his opponent’s credentials at MAGA, while presenting himself as a true ally of the 45th president.
“Dave, I want to congratulate you. You serve our country well in so many different ways, ”Trump could be heard telling McCormick in an old video included in an ad released by McCormick’s campaign this week.
The fierce battle between Oz and McCormick, which is taking place on television screens in Pennsylvania, has left both men with significantly higher unfavorable ratings than Barnett, according to a Fox poll that found that 46% of Republican Republican voters do not watch Oz favorably. That created a giant opening for Barnett in the final days of the race, said one of Trump’s allies.
“For four to five months, McCormick and Oz spent millions of dollars bombing each other. Who would you rather be? ”Said Trump’s adviser.
However, Barnett’s allies expect both of her main opponents to direct some of their attacks on her now that she is registered as a bigger threat in the polls.
“I am sure she will be persecuted. There is no doubt that they will do something, “said Tim Huelskamp, a former Kansas spokesman in the United States, a senior adviser at CatholicVote, who praised Barnett as a” true pro-life “and said he was” now at an astonishing distance “from her rivals in a statement. for approval on Tuesday.
“But if they do, they’ll just draw attention to the fact that she’s what they’re trying to be: an authentic conservative and a Pennsylvania,” Huelskamp added.
As the Huelskamp group launches a text message campaign in Barnette’s favor targeting Catholic Catholics in the state, which the group has identified as anti-abortion Republicans, another incentive for Barnette will come from buying a Club for Growth ad.
The group’s $ 1.9 million blitz ad for Barnette caught several unprepared Trump allies expecting Growth Club President David Mackintosh to remain low after his relationship with the former president took a nasty turn in the last weeks of the primary. Ohio Senate. . Mackintosh ordered the Growth Club to continue attacking JD Vance on the air after Trump’s approval of him, although Vance still prevailed against club-backed opponent Josh Mandel in the end.
“It was something that really made people notice, because before the club’s investment, it was thought she had some momentum, but others will spend millions of dollars this week and just drown her,” said one of Trump’s allies.
“Even when her numbers started to rise, no one expected her to have the resources to go on television. That obviously changes if the club spends $ 2 million on it now, “he added.
The Trump test
A loss to Oz – either Barnett or McCormick – could mark the beginning of a difficult time for Trump, who backed several candidates running in the contested primary this month.
In addition to Pennsylvania, where Trump was eventually persuaded to stand behind Oz by his wife Melania and allies such as Fox host Sean Hannity, he backed Ted Bud in North Carolina, who is also running in the Senate primary next Tuesday. against former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. And later this month, Trump will have a number of candidates running in primary elections across Georgia, including gubernatorial candidate David Purdue, whom Trump personally appointed while working to free the Republican Party from elected officials – as incumbent Brian Kemp – who refused to accept his refuted allegations about the 2020 election.
With the exception of Charles Herbster’s defeat in Nebraska amid several allegations of sexual misconduct, Trump has so far reasonably argued that his approval really makes a difference in racing – moving Vance from third place to a comfortable Senate primary victory. in Ohio last week and boosted Alex Mooney in the heated congressional primary in West Virginia this week.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s David Wright contributed to this story.
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