Yes, Kathy Barnette can Win in the General Election

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Despite the various attempts by Hannity et al to cast doubt on Barnette's character, the one argument that seems to be sticking with many conservatives is her electability. Many are basing this on claims that she was embarrassingly defeated in 2020 by a "weak" Democrat. On Thursday's show, he said [emphasis added]:

"Kathy Barnett has not gotten any kind of vigorous, rigorous vetting that is now proving to be a massive problem in this race. Here's why... In 2020 she was not a serious candidate in her congressional race she lost to a pretty weak Democrat by 19 points."

What Hannity doesn't mention is that the "weak" Democrat was Madeleine Dean, a Democrat incumbent in a very blue district. Compared to Dan David who ran against Dean in 2018, Barnette dramatically outperformed him, getting 48% more votes than David got in his race against Dean two years earlier.

Hannity and others are hoping that voters will equate losing in 2020 in a congressional race to a loss in 2022 in a senate race. This is unambiguously false and extremely disingenuous for them to rely on the ignorance of many voters. Her very strong performance in a very blue district is why she would almost certainly win in a statewide senate race.

The oldest play in the GOP Establishment's playbook is to say that a conservative's past controversial remarks disqualifies them, that we should go with the "sensible" choice so we can defeat the Democrat. That's what Hannity is doing here. Of course, he was singing a very different tune in 2016 with Donald Trump, who had exponentially more "baggage" from past actions and remarks going into the general election than Kathy Barnette. She has offensive Tweets. Trump had so much more that some said would prevent him from winning, yet here we are.

Voters aren't as stupid as Hannity, Democrats, and the GOP Establishment hope. We look at a candidate based on what we perceive they'll be able to do for us. My support for Barnette is based on her ideas, but also based on aspects of Dr. Oz that she does not share.