Opinion: Hugh Hewitt Calls Democrats' El-Sayed, Flanagan, Jackson and Talarico a 'Fanatic Four' and Says the Party Forgot '50% Plus One'
The Fox News contributor argues four Democratic nominees sit outside the mainstream while Republicans fielded centrists in three of the four races. It is his column, not reporting, and he calls Paxton in Texas 'a flawed candidate.'
In his "Morning Glory" column for Fox News, radio host Hugh Hewitt argues that Democrats have nominated four Senate candidates far outside the political mainstream, a week before Election Day.
His list. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas. In three of those states, he says, Republicans answered with centrists: Mike Rogers in Michigan, Michele Tafoya in Minnesota and Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. In Texas the nominee is Ken Paxton, whom Hewitt calls "a flawed candidate" who "will be a reliable GOP vote in the Senate."
His evidence. On El-Sayed, Hewitt points to his last interview with Fox's Bret Baier, calls his handling of Medicare for All "semantics and word puzzles," and says his "hurt people hurt people" remark after an attack on a Michigan synagogue "has never receded." On Jackson, he says Collins won four of four debates and that Jackson struggled with the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. On Flanagan, he says the Twin Cities fraud scandal has followed her. On Talarico, he says the GOP has spent millions defining him as far left, and notes he left the trail for about 12 days and blamed the flu.
His argument. Hewitt says the basic rule is 50% plus one, and that Republicans broke it in 2010 and 2012 by nominating Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, who all lost. He says Democrats are now doing the same, pushed left by the Democratic Socialists of America, and says Mayor Mamdani's narrow win in New York last year was a "false positive." He says sending out Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama will not help.
Note for readers: this is opinion, not a forecast. Hewitt says the consequences "will be revealed next Tuesday." For context, a Fox News poll has Paxton and Talarico tied at 49% in Texas, as we report in a separate story today. We have not checked the debate and interview details he describes.