‘Kavanaugh Effect’: Judge’s Confirmation Galvanizing Republican Voters, Claims Reince Priebus
The Brett Kavanaugh saga reached its epilogue when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and former Justice Anthony Kennedy swore Judge Kavanaugh in as an associate justice to the Supreme Court.
As Al Jazeera reported, Kavanaugh took an oath on October 7, officially becoming the 114th U.S. Supreme Court Justice. But Kavanaugh’s confirmation followed a bitter battle, one that had polarized the entire country.
While Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court may have polarized America, it has also managed to galvanize Republican voters, at least according to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
Priebus calls this phenomenon the “Kavanaugh effect.”
“Something incredible has happened over the last couple of weeks. And that’s called the ‘Kavanaugh effect’ on Republican voters,” Priebus said Sunday, The Hill reports.
Explaining the difference he claims to have noticed among Republican voters, Priebus said the following.
“Republicans were at like a six. They were happy with the economy. They were happy with the wins that we had. But they weren’t at the level where they had to be. Well, now they are at a 10.”
Although Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court seems to have woken up Republican voters, according to Priebus, this does not have to produce tangible results in this fall’s midterms. The midterms, Priebus said, are a “coin flip.”
Still, when it comes to midterm elections, voters are looking for inspiration, and “thank you votes,” as Priebus put it, are usually not enough, in and of themselves.
Reince Priebus credits "Kavanaugh effect" with boosting GOP voter energy https://t.co/KIg2LyxC0k pic.twitter.com/DUho3QIvMM
— The Hill (@thehill) October 15, 2018
“It’s usually something else that inspires voters in a midterm,” and in this case the spark that could light the fire among Republican voters is indeed the so called Kavanaugh effect, according to White House chief of staff.
Raw data does not give Priebus’ a lot of reason for optimism, however.
As the Inquisitr reported earlier today, new polls show that the Democratic Party still leads in the polls for the House of Representatives, by 11 percentage points. Perhaps surprisingly, President Donald Trump’s rating has gone up — it has risen up five points since August — but Democrats are projected to take over the House.
If they do, they are likely to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump. Even if Trump does not get removed from office, this could turn out to be a major problem for the Republican Party, which has, some claim, become the party of Donald Trump.
Writing about Trump’s “grip” on the Republican Party, the New Yorker observed that candidates across the country are looking for the president’s endorsement, as he remakes the party in his own image.
