‘WAVE OF ARROGANCE’

Flailing GOP Senators Torched by Own Side in Brutal Verdict

Even Republican candidates in solid red states may not be spared embarrassment on Tuesday.

Three GOP incumbent senators in deep-red states are being blasted by their own party for their lackluster midterm campaign efforts.

Kansas’ Roger Marshall, South Carolina’s Darline Graham and Mississippi’s Cindy Hyde-Smith have been called out for assuming victory on Tuesday would be a sure thing and waiting too long to start campaigning properly.

Speaking to Axios, unnamed Republicans said the three senators had ignored multiple warnings to raise more money for their midterm campaigns and wrongly assumed that running in solid-red states would be enough.

This overconfidence could be particularly damaging for Marshall, who is being massively outspent this midterm cycle by his Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton. On Sunday, the final New York Times/Siena polls showed Hamilton with a commanding five-point lead in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932 or voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.

Graham, a political novice parachuted in to fill the seat vacated by her late brother, Lindsey Graham, is also in a tight race against Democrat Annie Andrews and risks losing the Senate seat her older sibling held for decades. Graham has frequently been condemned for not campaigning enough, with Andrews outraising the nepo-baby senator by $4.2 million to $570,000.

While Hyde-Smith is expected to win her Mississippi Senate race against Democrat Scott Colom, she could severely underperform in a state Donald Trump won by 22 points in 2024. She has also raised just $6.5 million, compared with Colom’s $13.7 million, and Republicans have criticized her for holding too few campaign events.

“Democrats may win these seats in a wave ... but not a blue wave. It’s the wave of arrogance [and] laziness ... that washed over these GOP incumbents and made them think they were invincible,” a national GOP operative involved in several key Senate races told Axios.

Republicans took particular umbrage at Marshall, telling Axios that his campaign efforts had been “overconfident.”

Marshall’s team believed his polling numbers would improve once opposition research on Hamilton was released, an assumption that proved false. Instead, Hamilton could become the first Democrat to win a Kansas Senate race in nearly a century, in part because Marshall raised just $7.5 million, compared with Hamilton’s $19 million.

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Republican strategists say Marshall’s chief of staff, Brent Robertson, shoulders much of the blame for the senator’s poor campaign efforts. Veteran Trump operative Chris Grant has since been brought on board to give the incumbent’s election bid a much-needed last-minute boost.

Elsewhere, Graham has been condemned by her own party for failing to tap her late brother’s donor network for her campaign and for “showing little interest” in soliciting contributions.

Last month, a New York Times/Siena poll of likely South Carolina voters found Graham and Andrews tied at 48 percent, with Fox News’ forecast model also shifting the contest from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.”

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In a statement to Axios, Graham spokesperson T.W. Arrighi said the senator “has faced unprecedented headwinds since losing her brother three months ago, and has risen to the occasion.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Roger Marshall, Darline Graham, and Cindy Hyde-Smith’s offices for comment.

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