Sharron Angle gets a bad rap from many. Her race was not like many of the others the tea party won.
It wasn’t a heavily red state like KY where Paul won. It wasn’t like FL where there was a 3 way race and the dem was some lame candidate like Kendrick Meek who no one had ever heard of. It wasn’t like Lee in UT where the GOP could have nominated you and they’d have won going away.
Harry Reid was a 3 term Sr Senator from a pro Obama state in NV. He had control of a statewide machine and had great coordination with the unions. He was the Senate Majority Leader. It’s a lot to ask a state to get rid of a majority leader of the same party of the President. NV knew that as long as Reid was there they’d have the ear of the WH and have their concerns taken care of. If Angle won, the WH would totally ignore NV and they’d become some backwater. Having a Majority Leader from your state gives you a lot of influence and power. It’s not easy to give that all up. Reid is also a mormon in a state that has a large mormon population and don’t discount that. If that’s going to help Romney in NV, why shouldn’t it have helped Reid?
So, I just don’t think that race was as easy as many made it out to be. I mean, would Lowden or whoever else was in that GOP primary have beatn Reid? Probably not.
Well said.
Hard to say, but Lowden and Tarkanian both had polled better vs. Reid than Angle. Plus -- and like it or not, it matters -- Angle had poor camera presence.
Angle earned the bad rap by her prior runs for office. I warned everyone within earshot she was too damaged, immensely unpopular and polarizing to win a statewide office, and she proved that. Any other credible GOP candidate in the primary would’ve defeated the highly unpopular Reid.