在追求无可挑剔的忠诚的过程中，特朗普总统推动了一批糟糕的候选人上台，危及他掌权的多数党以及美国共和党的长期健康。
In his unquenchable thirst for unwavering loyalty, President Donald Trump has pushed a slew of bad candidates on voters, imperiling his governing majority and the Republican Party’s long-term health.
特朗普在全国各地的选举中挣扎着的标杆人物反映出他对美国共和党的压倒性控制，即便他即将进入卸任阶段。经过十年的特朗普化，党的影响力几乎完全来自于对特朗普的忠诚、他狭隘的政策理念，甚至是公开撒谎。随着“MAGA纯度”成为政治通货，这形成了一个以实际能力为次要的政治赞助体系。这种影响在本轮南方关键参议院竞选中尤为明显。
Trump’s struggling standard-bearers in races across the country reflect his suffocating grip on the GOP, even as he nears his lame-duck era. After a decade of Trumpification, party influence now stems almost entirely from allegiance to Trump, his narrow set of policy ideas and even his outright lies. As MAGA purity has become the coin of the realm, it has created a political patronage system in which actual skills matter little. The impact is especially glaring in key Senate races across the South this cycle.
在南卡罗来纳州，价值500万美元的GOP广告投放旨在巩固参议员达琳·格雷厄姆（Darline Graham）的竞选，已席卷电视和广播。在深红色州中，如此大额支出的必要性凸显了格雷厄姆的弱势。她个人筹款微薄，且极少与选民互动。上周日晚，她在朗读笔记时的辩论表现摇摆不定。格雷厄姆凭借已故哥哥的遗缘赢得议席，目前仍被认为有望获胜，但她作为候选人的缺陷以及家族背景凸显了特朗普对其党在中期选举胜算、品牌形象及长期孕育思想与人才潜力方面的负面影响。
In South Carolina, a $5 million GOP ad buy to shore up Senator Darline Graham’s candidacy is flooding the airwaves. That such spending is considered necessary in the deep-red state is a sign of Graham’s weakness. She has raised little money on her own and has made scant appearances among voters. On Sunday night, a notes-reading Graham debated her opponent in an unsteady performance. Graham, who holds her late older brother’s seat thanks to Trump, is still favored to win. But her flaws as a candidate and her nepotistic background are emblematic of Trump’s damaging impact on his party’s midterm chances, its brand and its long-term prospects for incubating ideas and talent.
“达琳·格雷厄姆可能是我在南卡罗来纳州近期看到的最弱的一位参议员候选人，”曾在2020年与参议员林赛·格雷厄姆（Lindsey Graham）角逐连任的众议员贾米·哈里森（Jaime Harrison）表示。“她没有开展竞选，长时间没有电视广告。辩论时她在念稿，而且是一份并不精致的稿子。这份稿子基本上就是宣称特朗普在一切上都对——从伊朗战争到关税到人工智能。”
“Darline Graham is probably one of the weakest candidates I have seen in South Carolina running for federal office in a very, very, very long time,” said Jaime Harrison, who ran against Senator Lindsey Graham in 2020. “She’s not been campaigning and she didn’t have any advertising on the air for a while. At the debate, she had a script and it wasn’t a sophisticated one.”The script is essentially that Trump is right about everything — from the Iran war to tariffs to artificial intelligence.
事实上，在辩论接近尾声时，格雷厄姆出现了口误，她似乎说自己是“华盛顿人民”的代言人，但她的本意应该是“南卡罗来纳州人民”。这一失言也反映出她在第二轮辩论中承认自己对国家安全问题缺乏了解，当时她曾说这并非自己的专业领域。但既然有特朗普的支持，又何必花时间学习知识或努力成为一名优秀的政治家呢？
Indeed, toward the debate’s end, Graham misspoke, seeming to say she worked for the people in Washington, when she meant South Carolina. The gaffe echoed her admitted ignorance on matters of national security in her runoff debate, when she said it wasn’t her thing. But why spend time knowing stuff or being a good politician when you have Trump’s endorsement?
同样的情况也出现在其他参议员竞选战中，包括得克萨斯州的肯·帕克斯顿、北卡罗来纳州的迈克尔·沃特利以及佐治亚州的迈克·柯林斯。
The same dynamics are at work in other Senate races, including in Texas with Ken Paxton, in North Carolina with Michael Whatley and in Georgia with Mike Collins.
民调显示，这三位特朗普的宠儿在支持率上落后于他们的民主党对手。原因也不难理解。沃特利曾被特朗普提名为2024年共和党全国委员会主席，但他本人缺乏吸引力，其竞选策略完全围绕特朗普展开。
Polls show this trio of Trump favorites lagging their Democratic opponents. And it’s not hard to see why. Whatley, whom Trump tapped to head the Republican National Committee in 2024, is uninspiring, running on all things Trump.
“我仍然支持那个人，”他上个月在一次竞选活动中站在特朗普身旁时说道，而特朗普正是他政治生涯的恩人。鉴于前州长罗伊·库珀在民调中表现强劲，这场原本可能转向民主党的竞选战已促使共和党人撤回了在北卡罗来纳州的资金投入。
“I am still with that guy,” he said at a campaign event last month as he stood next to Trump, the man he owes his career to. Republicans have pulled money out of North Carolina given the strong polling of former Governor Roy Cooper in a race that is likely to flip to Democrats.
在佐治亚州，柯林斯是一名众议员，他在2022年的竞选中曾投放广告，声称特朗普赢得了2020年大选。如今，在试图击败参议员乔恩·奥索夫（后者常被拿来与前总统巴拉克·奥巴马相提并论）的同时，他还不得不应对与白人至上主义者的关联指控。周二晚的辩论形成了鲜明对比：39岁的奥索夫富有魅力，反应敏捷，气场十足；而59岁的柯林斯则表现平平。
In Georgia, Collins, a representative who ran ads in his 2022 race claiming that Trump won the 2020 election, has had to fend off accusations over ties to White nationalists as he tries to oust Senator Jon Ossoff, who is drawing comparisons to former President Barack Obama. Their debate Tuesday night offered quite a contrast — a charismatic Ossoff, 39, was quick on his feet and commanding. Collins, 59, not so much.
最后是得克萨斯州，共和党和其附属组织计划投入5亿美元，试图将深陷丑闻的帕克斯顿从民主党对手詹姆斯·塔拉里科手中拯救出来。
And then there is Texas, where the GOP and affiliated groups are set to spend half a billion dollars to lift the scandal-plagued Paxton over his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
2023年被自己党内成员弹劾的帕克斯顿是特朗普的人——总统对帕克斯顿的偏爱几乎确保了参议员约翰·科宁在初选中的落败。但每周似乎都会有关于得州总检察长的新爆料。本周《华尔街日报》披露：“在得州参议院选举进入白热化阶段之际，肯·帕克斯顿曾与逃犯一同在迪拜狂欢。”得州一项新的民意调查显示，53%的民主党人表示对11月的投票充满极大热情，而共和党人这一比例仅为37%。
Paxton, who was impeached by members of his own party in 2023, is Trump’s guy — the president’s preference for Paxton all but ensured Senator John Cornyn’s defeat in the primary. But every week seems to bring a new revelation about the Texas attorney general. This week’s, from the Wall Street Journal: “Ken Paxton Partied in Dubai With Fugitives Ahead of High-Stakes Texas Senate Race.”A new Texas poll shows that 53% of Democrats said they were extremely enthusiastic about casting a ballot in November, compared to just 37% of Republicans.
对共和党而言，这些选举意味着错失良机。即便共和党赢得这些参议院席位，这些候选人也远称不上为党内人才储备增添新力量。参议院正是总统、副总统和内阁成员的摇篮，而特朗普却试图用那些政治能力低下的追随者来填充这个机构。
For the GOP, these races represent a missed opportunity. Even if the GOP wins these Senate seats, the candidates are hardly additions to the party’s talent pipeline. The upper chamber is where presidents, vice presidents and cabinet members come from. And Trump is trying to stock it with his politically inept acolytes.
周二，白宫官方账号发布了一张特朗普的照片并附上他的语录：“相信这个过程。”“说到底，一切都会好起来的。你知道为什么吗？因为总是如此。”的确，对特朗普而言，事情通常都会朝着他想要的方向发展——在2020年遭罢免后，他于2024年上演了历史性的强势回归。他正敦促支持者假装他本人还在选票上。事实上，他们根本无需假装。
On Tuesday, the White House account posted a picture and quote from Trump with the words “[t]rust the process.”“Bottom line, it’s gonna all work out. You know why? It always does.”Well, it has generally worked out for Trump, who mounted a historic comeback in 2024 after his 2020 ouster. He is urging his supporters to pretend he is on the ballot. In fact, they don’t really need to pretend.
特朗普精心挑选的一群平庸候选人，恰恰反映了其共和党所奉行的个人崇拜。特朗普的任期还剩两年，而这个曾经的“理念之党”如今已所剩无几思想领袖，后备力量也日益薄弱。这将是特朗普留下的持久遗产。
Trump’s handpicked passel of poor candidates reflects the cult of personality that is Trump’s GOP. There are two years left in Trump’s term, and the one-time “party of ideas” has few remaining thought leaders and an increasingly thin bench. This will be Trump’s enduring legacy.