Cincinnati Enquirer
By Jason Williams
Republicans just called a female Air Force combat veteran a “socialist loser.”
Yeesh, not a good look for the Trump Party. Democrat Nikki Foster is neither a socialist nor a loser, from what little we know about the Mason moderate after she launched her campaign in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District on Monday.
I don’t know too many socialists who are as pro-military as Foster, who recruits veterans for GE Aviation – a job she landed after she flew missions over Iraq and Afghanistan while on active duty. But that’s beside the point.
The issue is GOP desperation. Are the Republicans already in such a state of panic about Congressman Steve Chabot’s re-election bid that the party would stoop this low some 16 months away from the 2020 election?
They are.
Foster, 37, is a first-time congressional candidate but she has some things working in her favor that scare the Republicans.
Military experience typically plays well with voters, a reason Foster’s campaign promoted her time in the Air Force in the launch video. She has never held an elected office, and therefore has no voting record for Republicans to use against her. The 2020 climate is expected to be favorable for women candidates, who hope to appeal to suburban educated moms amid the Trump resistance.
So the Republicans have to throw something against the wall. It’s easy these days to call every Democrat a “socialist,” though few of them actually are. The far-left is loud and their out-of-touch policy ideas drown out normal Democrats, but voters are smart enough to know the “socialist” moniker isn’t one-size-fits-all.
In the case of Foster, the Republicans might have overreached with the socialist thing. It was the National Republican Congressional Committee that released the “socialist loser” statement. In doing so, the congressional Republicans’ fundraising arm brought attention to a candidate no one knew about.
Read the full story on the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website.