Joe Walsh Challenging Trump in the Primaries (Part 1)

Written by David E. Smith and John Biver

Joe Walsh, one-term congressman and failing radio talk show host, announced on August 25^th that he is now a candidate for president of the United States and will challenge President Donald J. Trump in the Republican primaries. No, this is not an article from the satirical website The Onion.

According to one news source, other people considering a run against President Trump are “former Tennessee Senator Bob Corker; Mark Sanford, a former South Carolina congressman who was also the state’s governor; and former Ohio Governor John Kasich.” That’s not exactly a stellar list of names.

We personally like Walsh. We like and get along with a lot of people with whom we disagree.

He won a crowded primary and squeaked out a win against Melissa Bean in the 2010 general election despite being dogged by a truckload of controversy regarding his failure to pay child support to his first wife and the claims of supporters and staff that he was difficult to work with and for.

His short tenure in the U.S. House of representatives was, shall we say, boisterous. Walsh was good at getting national media coverage because he was an outspoken critic of Democrats and Republicans alike.

His legislative record was non-productive, which is not uncommon for first-term congressmen. After redistricting, Walsh failed to get reelected to a second term, losing to Tammy Duckworth in November 2012 by a 9-point margin.

A Salem radio talk show followed, and the same manic and colorful Walsh took his schtick to the airwaves. For many conservatives, he was saying things in exactly the hard-hitting manner they wanted.

Then Trump won the White House. At some point, Walsh began bashing Trump harshly and relentlessly, surprising many of his listeners. Walsh, infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome, became a full-fledged member of the Never-Trumper cohort and hate-Trump media.

It may have all started in earnest in July 2017 when President Trump sent out a Tweet announcing a new policy to ban transgenders serving openly in the military. This would effectively reverse the Obama administration’s policy that went as far as providing access to gender-affirming medical and psychological care. On his radio program, Walsh ranted against this commonsense proposal saying that those who have had “sex-reassignment” surgery should be able to serve as the “gender” they’ve chosen. Walsh should have been asked if men who have had “sex-reassignment” surgery (or as Leftists now call it, “gender confirmation” surgery) should be free to use women’s locker rooms as well.

Then last November, Walsh’s wife Helene lost her state rep. race despite running in a traditionally Republican district. Irrational Trump-haters held Trump responsible for Helene Walsh’s loss. To Trump-haters, her defeat had nothing to do with the feckless Illinois GOP or a decades-long lack of messaging and outreach by conservatives in the Chicago suburbs. No, the guy in the White House was to blame.

Up Next: Joe Walsh’s Self-Serving Candidacy (Part 2)

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