A huge deficit for the Republicans during the midterm campaign was a slate of bad candidates.

One of the more interesting races was in Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy ran for Governor against Democrat Amy Acton. He got blasted and lost the state by 8 points. He would have lost anyway, but he made it a lot worse when he ran that controversial ad featuring his opponent’s mother. 

Here’s the reason. You can’t bring family matters, even if it’s dysfunctional, into political campaigns.

Donald Trump, accurately, made the point that if his late mother had made comments about him, the left-wing media would have run wild with it. That’s true.

But in a place like Ohio, that did not go down with women at all. I knew it the second I saw it.

The result: a solid-red state has now gone blue.

Is it up for grabs in the 2028 presidential race? Too early to call.