Top 10 establishment Republicans who lost senate races in 2012

 Establishment favorite and self-financed candidate Linda McMahon lost two U.S. Senate races in a row – in 2010 and again in 2012 – in the state of Connecticut.  McMahon managed to lose despite being considered a moderate Republican in a wealthy state that is historically known for embracing centrist members of the GOP.McMahon is a former executive of the World Wrestling Federation and was able to outspend her primary opponents to gain the Republican nomination both times, including the 2012 primaries, despite losing the 2010 bid for the U.S. Senate.Establishment Republican figures such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigned for McMahon in 2012, yet failed to help her attract enough votes to win.McMahon was blown out in a 12-point landslide by Democrat Chris Murphy, marking yet another failure for an establishment-endorsed moderate Republican senate candidate.  McMahon lost her 2010 senate bid to current Sen. Richard Blumenthal by 11.8-points. Rep. Connie Mack lost his 2012 Florida U.S. Senate race on the same ticket with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the Sunshine State to President Barack Obama.Florida was a pivotal state in the 2012 presidential primaries because Romney and the Washington D.C. Republican establishment unleashed a barrage of negative attacks against then-frontrunner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.Rep. Mack played a role in this for the Romney campaign by stalking Gingrich at all of his public events and challenging the former Speaker on personal issues in an effort to boost Romney’s prospects in the decisive Florida primary.  Romney ended up winning the primary before losing the state – along with Mack – in the 2012 election. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, son of former Sen. Connie Mack and vocal 2012 presidential primary supporter of Mitt Romney, lost his own 2012 campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida to Sen. Bill Nelson in a 13-point landslide. Mack was heralded as the strongest Republican in Florida to win the U.S. Senate race against Nelson, with early polls showing him only 2-points behind the senator.  The support of the embodiment of the Republican establishment in Florida - former Gov. Jeb Bush – did nearly nothing to help Mack in the end.View the list »
On Feb. 3, the American Crossroads organization announced the formation of a project to influence the outcome of GOP U.S. Senate primaries in the 2014 election cycle, according to a report on Politico.com.

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On Feb. 3, the American Crossroads organization announced the formation of a project to influence the outcome of GOP U.S. Senate primaries in the 2014 election cycle, according to a report on Politico.com.

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American Crossroads is a non-profit organization co-founded by former White House adviser Karl Rove, who is viewed by many conservative political insiders as the unofficial strategist for the Republican establishment. The group will form a Super PAC – ironically dubbed the “Conservative Victory Project” – with the goal of helping establishment-backed primary challengers overcome the power of Tea Party voters, libertarians, and grass-roots conservative activists.

In the 2012 election, Rove’s group spent $300 million supporting establishment candidates in U.S. Senate races and on behalf of Mitt Romney. The GOP failed to win control of the senate and Romney lost to President Barack Obama.

Organizations like the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund derided the Rove-backed venture as an attempt to enforce a top-down hierarchy on the way the party selects its candidates. Both groups pointed to their success in helping elect U.S. senators such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Pat Toomey, and Sen. Ted Cruz.

In fact, the two grass-roots conservative groups have evidence to support the fact that they possess a better election scorecard at winning U.S. Senate races than the establishment candidates backed by Rove and American Crossroads.

Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Ted Cruz actually had to overcome primary candidates heavily favored by establishment Republicans to win their seats.

Establishment Republican senate candidates were defeated in states Mitt Romney lost in landslides and also in states he won by large margins. The only consistent theme seems to be that voters do not feel much attraction to rank-and-file establishment Republican politicians anymore. President Barack Obama and his allies exploited that friction during the contentious fiscal cliff negotiations.

As the 2016 Republican presidential field includes names like Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Ted Cruz, the internal battle within the GOP will play a pivotal role in determining the party's next presidential candidate to succeed President Barack Obama.

Here are the top ten establishment Republicans to lose U.S. Senate races in the 2012 election.

Steven Holmes is the Los Angeles Political Buzz Examiner.

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  •  U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, son of former Sen. Connie Mack and vocal 2012 presidential primary supporter of Mitt Romney, lost his own 2012 campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida to Sen. Bill Nelson in a 13-point landslide. Mack was heralded as the strongest Republican in Florida to win the U.S. Senate race against Nelson, with early polls showing him only 2-points behind the senator.  The support of the embodiment of the Republican establishment in Florida - former Gov. Jeb Bush – did nearly nothing to help Mack in the end.
  •  Rep. Connie Mack lost his 2012 Florida U.S. Senate race on the same ticket with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the Sunshine State to President Barack Obama.Florida was a pivotal state in the 2012 presidential primaries because Romney and the Washington D.C. Republican establishment unleashed a barrage of negative attacks against then-frontrunner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.Rep. Mack played a role in this for the Romney campaign by stalking Gingrich at all of his public events and challenging the former Speaker on personal issues in an effort to boost Romney’s prospects in the decisive Florida primary.  Romney ended up winning the primary before losing the state – along with Mack – in the 2012 election.
  •  Establishment favorite and self-financed candidate Linda McMahon lost two U.S. Senate races in a row – in 2010 and again in 2012 – in the state of Connecticut.  McMahon managed to lose despite being considered a moderate Republican in a wealthy state that is historically known for embracing centrist members of the GOP.McMahon is a former executive of the World Wrestling Federation and was able to outspend her primary opponents to gain the Republican nomination both times, including the 2012 primaries, despite losing the 2010 bid for the U.S. Senate.Establishment Republican figures such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigned for McMahon in 2012, yet failed to help her attract enough votes to win.McMahon was blown out in a 12-point landslide by Democrat Chris Murphy, marking yet another failure for an establishment-endorsed moderate Republican senate candidate.  McMahon lost her 2010 senate bid to current Sen. Richard Blumenthal by 11.8-points.
  •  Former Sen. George Allen lost the Virginia U.S. Senate seat he once occupied by a photo-finish in the turbulent 2006 election to former Sen. Jim Webb.  When Webb decided not to run for re-election, Allen figured he would have an easy time recapturing the lost senate seat.Allen was a longtime ally of former President George W. Bush and a consummate Republican establishment politician.  He was formerly governor of Virginia and hails from a famous family, with his father of the same name being the former coach of the Washington Redskins.Despite the huge backing of establishment Republicans, Allen actually fared worse than his 2006 election defeat, losing to former Gov. Tim Kaine by five percentage points.
  •  Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson lost her 2012 U.S. Senate election in New Mexico for the open seat to replace former Sen. Jeff Bingaman.Like Linda McMahon in Connecticut, Wilson’s 5.6-point defeat in the 2012 race marked the second time that she lost a bid for the U.S. Senate.  In 2008, Wilson opted to not seek re-election for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives so she could run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Pete Domenici.  Wilson lost in the Republican primaries in that year.
  •  Former Health and Human Services Secretary and former Gov. Tommy Thompson lost his 2012 U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin by 5.6-points.Thompson was a former cabinet secretary under former President George W. Bush and a longtime stalwart in establishment Republican politics.  He also briefly ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
  •  Former Gov. Linda Lingle lost her 2012 U.S. Senate race in Hawaii by 25.2-points, despite considerable support from establishment Republican figures and being a former two-term governor of the state.Undoubtedly, the unpopularity of fellow establishment Republican Mitt Romney at the top of the ticket weighed on Lingle’s race, as well as the fact that President Barack Obama calls Hawaii his childhood home.
  •  Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra lost his 2012 U.S. Senate race in Michigan to incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow by 20.8 percentage points.Hoekstra was a former longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a former chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, and very well regarded in establishment Republican circles.
  •  Former Rep. Rick Berg lost his 2012 U.S. Senate race in North Dakota by only a single percentage point in a state that Mitt Romney carried by nearly 20 percentage points.Berg had been an elected Republican politician in the state of North Dakota since 1984 before winning a race for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.  As a career politician and sitting U.S. congressman, Berg was the choice of the Republican establishment in Washington D.C.
  •  Former Sen. Scott Brown was the closest Republican to Mitt Romney running in a U.S. Senate race in 2012.  Both were moderate Republicans favored by the establishment of the party and believed to be capable of attracting votes from centrist independents.Unfortunately for both Brown, Romney, and establishment Republicans, liberal Democrat Elizabeth Warren trounced Brown by 7.4-points in Massachusetts, despite a massive amount of spending and robocalls conducted by Karl Rove’s Crossroads SuperPAC.
  •  Former Rep. Denny Rehberg lost his 2012 U.S. Senate race in Montana to one of the most vulnerable incumbent senators in the nation.  Rehberg, a longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives and career politician in Montana, was defeated by Sen. Jon Tester by 3.9-points in the 2012 race.Rehberg’s long tenure in Washington D.C. and relatively moderate record made him the top choice of establishment Republicans in the 2012 primary. Despite Tester’s weaknesses and President Barack Obama losing the state by 13.7 percentage points in 2012, Rehberg was unable to pull out a victory for his establishment Republican allies.
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, LA Political Buzz Examiner

Political Journalist Based In Los Angeles, California. A keen observer of elections around the world, the candidates, issues, polling, and political strategies that determine those who hold power and the history they create with it.

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