Can Trump Lose The GOP A Senate Seat... In Louisiana?

You may not have felt inspired by Trump's screaming hate speech Thursday night... but others were. Neo-Nazi/KKK leader David Duke, who was planning to primary House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was so aroused by Trump's signal to white nationalists that he's decided to run for the open Louisiana U.S. Senate seat instead. That seat is being abandoned by sex predator David Vitter, who was rejected by Louisiana voters in the gubernatorial race last November. It's now becoming clear that normalizing antisemitic white nationalists is not a bug but a feature for hardcore Trumpists. "I’m overjoyed," he said in his announcement yesterday, "to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years. My slogan remains America first."

There are something like 20 candidates for the November 8 general election but it is likely that no one will reach 50% which will trigger a December runoff. The top Republican contenders-- and this seat should be an easy hold for the GOP (Romney having beaten Obama there 58-41%)-- are 2 crackpot Republican congressmen, John Fleming and Charles "Lord Charles" Boustany, the latter best known for getting caught trying to buy an English patent of nobility for himself and his wife on the internet. Sir Charles and Fleming, though, will also have to contend with far right sociopath Rob Maness, a former Navy SEAL who can go toe-to-toe with Duke on every issue near and dear to the hearts of the Ku Klux Klan. Then there's state Treasurer John Kennedy and moderate former one-term Congressman Joseph Cao-- plus 4 other random Republicans. Mitch McConnell had the NRSC already announce that they will not support Duke even if he wins the nomination and gets the backing of Trump.

There are also a slew of Democrats, Foster Campbell and Caroline Fayard being the two most plausible, especially if the Democrats can consolidate around one candidate. If that happens and Duke comes in first among the Republicans, David "Diapers" Vitter's seat will fall, unexpectedly, into Democratic hands, giving the Senate Dems an outside shot at retaining the Senate in 2018 which will be a massively bad year for Senate Democrats.

Financial reporting for the race isn't perfect but the top fundraisers so far are:

• Lord Boustany (R)- $4,338,914
• John Fleming (R)- $3,224,059
• John Kennedy (R)- $1,765,923
• Caroline Fayard (D)- $1,117,415
• Foster Campbell (D)- $999,217
• Rob Maness (R)- $484,332

Duke is just getting started but the kind of racist hate speech he and Trump use, attracts dedicated followers willing to skip going to the laundromat on weekends to send in their quarters and crumpled up dollar bills. "With the country coming apart t at the seams and no one willing to really speak the truth about what is happening," the tax cheat and convicted felon began his campaign, "the majority population in this country needs someone who will actually give voice to their interests in the face of an increasingly violent hatefest launched by the media and political establishment against them... We must stop the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of people whose forefathers created America." Keep in mind, Duke was elected and reelected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in the New Orleans suburbs (Metarie).

He's tied himself to the Trump campaign right from the start and told a popular Louisiana Hate Talk Radio host what he likes about Herr Trumpf:

• “I [thought] I would never see a candidate stand up and possibly just maybe put America first, and Donald Trump may do that.”

• “There is no candidate-- other than if I were running-- that is more hated by the Jewish media establishment, the Jewish money establishment, the Jewish political establishment than Donald Trump.”

• “If he's controlled by the Jews, there’s no way he’d be saying what he's saying.”

• “He actually went to these Jewish moneybags and he says to their face, he says, ‘You’re not going to support me, because I’m not going to take your money and you don’t want anybody you can’t control.’ ”

• “I’m not saying the guy’s one of us. But he has made the immigration issue the critical issue it should be. If immigration continues in this country we have no future, we have no chance of winning, our people are being destroyed.”

• “His whole life he’s been having to deal with these Jews and my daughter said it pretty well the other day to me, she said… 'Dad, you know this guy is a gentile for sure, he’s been working his whole life with these Jews. Do you think he really likes these people?' ”

Trump won 41.4% of Louisiana's primary vote (when there were still 4 active candidates) and pretty much won almost everywhere except in parishes that get their news from Texas media markets. A little warning though: the total number of voters who participated in the Republican primary was 301,169. The total participating in the Democratic primary-- which Hillary won with a 71.1% landslide-- was 311,613. If the Republicans remain divided and Duke winds up in one of the top two slots in November and then faces a Democrat in December...