The caterwauling ex-president and sore loser nonpareil poses a vexing riddle for Republican candidates. Fail to excite the Trump faithful, the thinking goes, and they’ll skip voting and give Democrats an overwhelming turnout advantage. Should a candidate hug Trump too tightly, the theory goes, those voters will stay home — or, worse, vote Democratic once again. It’s a quandary that is particularly acute in California, where Trump lost to Biden by 30 percentage points and no Republican has won statewide office in well over a decade. AdvertisementEven those carefully couched and obviously true statements may disqualify Chen in the eyes of some Trump loyalists.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 08, 2021 16:41 UTC