Trump’s Special Power
By 
The more data we see on this election, the weirder it gets and the reason it is weird is that it is hard to describe the power Trump has over a certain group of voters. A quick anecdote:
Need proof Trump's appeal isn't easily transferrable to other Republicans? Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) is on track to receive fewer votes in Nevada than Harris, but still won #NVSEN b/c at least 70k Trump voters didn't bother voting for Sam Brown (R).
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 9, 2024
It isn’t just that Trump doesn’t have coattails, which is true. It’s that there are so many voters who only come to the polls to vote for one reason and that is Donald Trump. They don’t feel they are Republicans. They don’t even bother to figure out that if they like Trump, they should vote for other Republicans, even if they don’t know who they are. They just hit the vote for Trump and walk away.
The good thing about this is that Jacky Rosen is still a senator because of it. Good chance that Tammy Baldwin is too, though I haven’t seen any numbers from Wisconsin on this. But it is worth noting that given the extreme likelihood that this is Trump’s last election (yes, you can argue that the Supreme Court could throw out the 22nd Amendment, but a) Trump’s brain will be complete mush by that time if he still lives, b) there are lots of other Republicans who want the job, and c) to do that would be allowing Obama to run again too, and this even assumes that Roberts and Barrett would tear up the Constitution to the extent of just inviting civil war, so it seems awfully unlikely), it is worth remembering that we aren’t necessarily seeing a permanent wave. We are just seeing a cult of personality. And the thing about cults of personality is that they can’t be replicated.
This shouldn’t make you feel good, no. It should allow you to put some of what we saw on Tuesday into context.