Hush-hush candidate now wants four debates
Don’t look now, but Republican congressional candidate Yvette Herrell isn’t as smug as she was in 2018.
She gave a jubilant victory speech only to lose the election. A blunder that big will dent anyone’s overconfidence.
No longer certain of victory, Herrell is back for another campaign in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers the southern half of the state.
Herrell says she wants three televised debates against Democratic U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small during the fall campaign, plus a fourth debate on radio.
This is another change in attitude. Herrell refused television debates with Torres Small two years ago, when they were competing for an open seat.
Herrell believed she had the last election won by summertime. She saw no upside to speaking to or sharing a stage with Torres Small, a telegenic young lawyer.
Election Day arrived and Herrell decided she had plenty to say.
She gave her unwarranted victory speech. Torres Small was in striking distance with thousands of votes still to be counted, but Herrell declared herself the winner.
Of course, Herrell was as wrong as any candidate could be. She lost the election to Torres Small by a decisive margin, more than 3,700 votes.
Humiliated by her own act, Herrell would publicly claim she’d been robbed.
“On Election Day we won, but the Democrats took it away,” she said.
This was not true. Losers, though, are full of phony alibis. Herrell’s claims of voter fraud were punctured more easily than a toy balloon.
She didn’t contest an election she claimed was dishonest. If she’d had any evidence of vote theft, the national Republican Party would have fought alongside her to overturn the result.
The Republicans had just lost their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. They were desperate for a story that would soften the blow and humiliate Democrats.
With Herrell all bluster and no action, her party sat in silence while Torres Small took her seat in Congress.
Today, the state Republican Party is so dispirited that Herrell, 56, is its best hope to win a high-profile race.
Herrell linked her campaign early on to President Donald Trump’s reelection bid.
Trump lost New Mexico in 2016, but he carried the 2nd Congressional District by a solid 10 percentage points.
Two years later, Herrell couldn’t keep the congressional seat in Republican hands.
Checking the math from the last two elections, Herrell praised Trump as a fine and courageous leader. In return, she hopes he has coattails.
There’s an inherent risk in her tactic. Trump in February exhibited overconfidence of his own, claiming the new coronavirus was under control in the United States. More than 142,000 Americans have since died of COVID-19, and infection rates are rising in much of the South and West.
His slow-footed and uncertain responses to the disease also contributed to the country’s economic crash.
Herrell has to hope voters blame New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, more than they fault Trump.
If Trump’s inattentiveness and errors are the key issue in the election, 35-year-old Torres Small has everything to gain. Independents and moderate Republicans will move her way.
The coronavirus will be a wild card in another respect. No one can be sure if it will hold down turnout.
More people vote in presidential election years than in midterms. But the coronavirus might knock turnout below typical levels.
Conventional thinkers say Herrell and other Republicans gain if turnout dips. Their belief is the superior registration numbers of Democrats in New Mexico are offset by a decline in voters.
Herrell relied on convention in proclaiming herself the winner in 2018.
Republicans had controlled the 2nd Congressional District for 36 of the previous 38 years. She assumed history was on her side
After Herrell lost, she turned to revisionist history. Her excuse that vote thieves kept her from going to Congress has worn thin.
She knows it. If she can’t sell the old story of being cheated, she might as well change her style.
Herrell can’t ignore Torres Small this time. The hush-hush candidate of old has debates at the top of her agenda.