DALLAS — Six months before the election, the Lincoln Project, a group dedicated to defeating Donald Trump at the ballot box, is at it again.
Expect the testimony heard ‘round the world to play a prominent role: adult film star Stormy Daniels describing in detail an alleged sexual encounter she had with Donald Trump during the former President’s hush money trial.
“I think that there is something deeply disturbing to people about seeing this happen. And the details are tawdry,” GOP political consultant Stuart Stevens told us on Y’all-itics. “And by the way, that’s one of four criminal counts he has against him, four criminal charges. I mean, I don’t think any of us would say, hey, look, this dude’s got it in the bag.”
After a long career as a GOP political consultant and strategist, Stuart Stevens is now a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project.
Stevens has a theory that when you add it all up, the Trump campaign may collapse ala Jimmy Carter in his 1980 campaign against Ronald Reagan, only in reverse.
“I liken it to somebody walking around with a paper bag full of water. It doesn’t leak. But it’s really hard to get it back once it goes,” Stevens said. “There’s no tax plan. There’s no jobs plan. There’s no healthcare plan. There’s just nothing there, except stuff he wants to take away.”
Stevens also shared some insight into The Lincoln Project’s election strategy, which targets two groups of Republicans they think will be enough to defeat Trump.
The first is the group they call “Dobbs Dads and Moms.”
Stevens tells us they tend to be male and a disproportionate number of them have daughters. And many of them are pro-life but hate the idea of liberties being taken away, even the right to an abortion.
Members of the other group they’re targeting are known as “Red Dawn” Republicans, named after the popular 1980s movie that depicted a Soviet occupation of America.
Stevens says these are older voters who tend to be Reagan Republicans and the idea that Republicans would be on the same side as Russia, or even defend Russian President Vladimir Putin, is anathema to them.
“Those are our voters. Our top four states are Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan,” Stevens said.