Kochs Swing And Miss In 3 Crucial Swing States

The Kochs went all in for the 2015 election, investing heavily in ballot initiatives and races up and down the ticket. But Charles and David came up short yesterday in three crucial swing states: Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Ohio.

In Pennsylvania, a Koch-linked group spent $1 million trying to tip the scales in a state Supreme Court yesterday. All three open Pennsylvania Supreme Court seats were won by Democrats. In Colorado, Charles and David’s AFP spent hundreds of thousands in two county school board elections, fueling “a money-soaked proxy war.” Again, the Kochs lost big. And in Ohio, 76% of voters approved the Coloumbus Zoo and Aquarium’s levy renewal — a cause the Kochs have been fighting for over a year.

Charles and David can’t be happy with these results: They don’t bode well for the Kochs’ prospects in 2016, when they plan to spend hundreds of millions more hawking the same unpopular policies.

It’s clear that Charles and David — and their policies and candidates — have a serious popularity problem among swing state voters.

And that, in turn, poses a very serious concern for whomever ends up being the GOP nominee. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the GOP field have done everything they can to make the Koch agenda their own — and they’ll continue to do so as long as Charles and David’s $889 million is up for grabs.