It appears that a controversial Democratic campaign tactic might be working.
One of the big political stories this spring and summer was Democratic meddling in Republican primaries — Democrats, that is, spending money to "attack” extremist Republican candidates for being too conservative. The thinking among campaign strategists was that elevating the extremists’ profile would help them defeat more moderate opponents who would have been harder for Democrats to beat in the general election.
Critics, including some within the Democratic Party, feared that the project could easily go awry and lead to more extremists in office. Those who defended the strategy insisted that politics sometimes demanded rough-and-tumble tactics, especially when victory would mean keeping election deniers and other extremists out of office.