Thread by @RachelBitecofer

1. This doesn't surprise me. Why? Negative partisanship. @Ilhan has been made 1 of the most infamous Ds by the GOP's shrewd electioneering shop. She's the poster-child for white identity politics, white grievance backlash, & the "fear factor" that drives the nativism, xenophobia,

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1331483636613459969

2. racism in the new Republican Party- which keep in mind, looks to be heading to be a party where the median member will have to run under a platform of accusing Biden of being an illegitimate prez, of having stolen the election, and this will be the litmus test for the 2022 &

3. 2024 cycles for GOP nominees. Incumbents will be pushed to stake this position to ward off primary challenges. Again- removing Trump from the prez eradicates MASSIVE emergent threats to the Republic, domestic & foreign, but we are still in a crisis situation here. In any case,

4. a member in Omar's situation- running in a D+26 district , doesn't mount a GE campaign beyond some signs and some constituent outreach events. Their only electoral threat is in a party primary. In most of these races, a voter would do into the booth and not recognize the

5. member's name unless it is someone w historic significance like John Lewis or John Glenn. And even then, name ID would be low. Name ID remains a challenge in competitive districts where voters would be exposed to an active campaign. At this level of office, everything is about

6. party ID- then name ID/incumbency. But with her being person non-grata, I'd expect a pretty heavy erosion of her brand. Ideologues are generally not very popular and then she has the racist and bigoted attacks on her for her gender, race, religion, and national origin. Those

7. racist/sexist/ethnocentric reasons make her the preferred target on the Right, even more than the other members of The Squad, bc they are, in fact, racist, sexist, and bigoted- a growing cancer that is now mainstream in the GOP. Something the American public is going to start

8. learning a lot about, as well as the Republican Party's extremism problem, which again, most Americans have no idea about. They have never been told the story of the Republican Civil War, of how the party got overthrown and turned into an extremist movement that can't govern,

9. but these are important contextual frames Americans need to understand as they assess their decisions to vote or not vote and for pure Indies, who to vote for. In terms of ideology, the GOP has a huge "Squad"- so large & powerful its members have held committee chairmanships

10. and have used them to damaged American national security, erode the rule of law, and abuse oversight.