Former President Donald Trump has made it clear that he opposes the bipartisan border enforcement deal being hammered out in the Senate. His opposition has jeopardized the bill’s chances of passage in the House.
Many Republican Senate candidates with close ties to him have likewise come out against the proposed bill — in some cases before the former president weighed in on Jan. 17.
These candidates’ condemnations of the bipartisan deal being negotiated by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) expose them to attacks from Democrats eager to maintain the party’s slim majority in the Senate. The tentative agreement includes major concessions from Democrats, including a provision requiring a complete shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico border when attempted crossings reach 5,000 a day.
Republican Senate candidates claim that the bill falls short largely because it includes provisions expediting some asylum-seekers’ ability to have their claims adjudicated and obtain work permits.
Democrats think they’re just trying to keep the issue alive to boost Trump’s chances of victory in November.
“Republican Senate candidates have made it clear they don’t care about securing our border or keeping Americans safe,” Tommy Garcia, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “These GOP candidates are practicing the worst kind of Washington politics, and in 2024 voters will hold them accountable for prioritizing their dangerous, ridiculous political agenda at the expense of our country’s security.”
Republican Senate candidates in Ohio, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas have all come out against Lankford’s would-be agreement.
Bernie Moreno, a businessman and Trump-backed candidate for Senate in Ohio, told voters in Vermillion on Jan. 13 that the bill was an “abomination.” (Moreno had dropped out of Ohio’s Republican Senate primary in 2022 at Trump’s behest; Trump backed the eventual winner, Sen. J.D. Vance.)
“It is on a scale as ridiculous as I’ve ever seen,” he exclaimed in an audio clip obtained by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Joe Maiorana/Associated Press
Moreno is competing with Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in the Republican primary for the chance to unseat Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Brown is one of the two topmost targets for Republicans to flip a seat.
Arizona Republican Kari Lake, a former gubernatorial candidate now running for an Arizona Senate seat, likewise said in a Jan. 12 interview on Garret Lewis’ radio show that she is “absolutely opposed” to the deal being negotiated.
Ahead of a Trump rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, on Jan. 22, she dubbed the emerging agreement “garbage” and a “slap in the face to the American people.”
Lake, a former TV anchor, is competing with Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and several other candidates for the Arizona Republican Senate nomination. She stands to face Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.
“This is unpopular in Arizona, and we will make sure voters know Ruben Gallego enabled the border crisis.”
– Garrett Ventry, spokesperson, Kari Lake campaign
“Joe Biden could secure the border by returning to Trump’s policies, but instead he halted the completion of the border wall, rescinded Remain in Mexico, and let Title 42 expire,” Lake campaign spokesperson Garrett Ventry told HuffPost. “This is unpopular in Arizona, and we will make sure voters know Ruben Gallego enabled the border crisis.”
Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL seeking the Republican Senate nomination in Montana, wrote on the social media app X on Jan. 24 that the emerging deal is “a load of America Last crap!”
Sheehy is hoping to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is, along with Brown, Senate Republicans’ top target for a seat takeover. In the Republican primary, Sheehy’s hardline stance on immigration could be an asset against Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who has previously said that he supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
In Nevada, Republican Sam Brown, a wounded veteran of the Afghanistan War, is taking on Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), another top target for Republicans.
Brown told The Messenger that he opposes the preliminary deal that Lankford is negotiating.
“If Joe Biden was serious about solving the border crisis and human rights tragedy he created, he would immediately reinstate the Trump border policies that he ended,” Brown said in a statement to The Messenger. “He wouldn’t wait for Congress.”
And in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, a former hedge fund manager running for Senate as a Republican, effectively panned the bipartisan deal, insisting that Biden should shut down the border on his own.
“He should do it instead of holding the American people hostage to his unwillingness to do the basic duty of a president,” McCormick said in a statement to the Messenger. “He needs to reverse his executive orders that ended the policies that were working.”
At least two Republican incumbents in seats where Democrats are hoping to gain ground are also standing against Lankford’s agreement.
In a Jan. 24 press conference, Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) dismissed the would-be deal as “dead on arrival in the House” and thus not worth much.
“We should not be voting for anything as Republicans in the Senate if Republicans in the House don’t support it,” he said.
Scott is facing a challenge from former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of South Florida, where Democrats hope that an upset victory might offset potential losses in states where they are on the defensive.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) also panned Lankford’s negotiated deal.
“As bad as we think the bill is, I promise you it’s worse,” he said at the Jan. 24 press conference with Scott. “If the American people knew what was in it, they would be against it. This supplemental bill is a kamikaze plane in a box canyon with no exit headed for a train wreck.”
Democrats hope that Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) can give Cruz a run for his money in November.