CNN Pollster Says Dems ‘Playing with Fire’ Boosting Fringe GOP Candidates with Republicans Favored in Midterms

Pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson argued on CNN Tuesday that Democrats might regret boosting so many fringe Republican candidates in primaries, given the GOP is still favored in the midterms.

Throughout primaries across the country this year, Democrats have paid to advertise for candidates who they view as too radical to get elected in a general election race.

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) was among the casualties last month. The Republican voted last year to impeach former president Donald Trump. He lost a close race to election denier John Gibbs.

Gibbs’ campaign was assisted in unseating Meijer by $435,000 from Democrats. The theory is Gibbs, and candidates like him will be easier to defeat in November than Republicans who are less inclined to support Trump.

The issue came up on The Lead Tuesday, when host Jake Tapper asked Anderson, a Republican, for her take on whether the plan might backfire.

“I want to start with you as our resident pollster,” Tapper said, before he opined, “Democrats are playing with fire. Like, the Trump-ier candidate is not a guarantee they can’t win in November.”

Anderson responded:

Look, politics ain’t bean bag, right? If they think this is going to give them an upper hand in winning a seat, that’s the argument the Democrats are making, but I think they are playing with fire in a year where Republicans are so favored.

I think it’s also the case that you have a lot of Democrats that have a very – they view taking out Republicans as this moral imperative.

Anderson added many Democrats view Republicans as a “threat to democracy,” and concluded:

If you’re doing things to help get Republicans elected, at least in a primary who hold these contrary views, you don’t get to have that kind of self-righteous – I get it, politics is tough. You want to win. You want to do what it takes to get your candidate ahead, but I think they’re playing with fire.

Watch above, via CNN.