Political dynasties: Exit Saxby, enter Nunn? | The Economist

As Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, explains, “A Democrat is only going to win in Georgia like they did in Indiana or Missouri, when the Republicans really screw up. And they could.” Mr Broun’s full-throated social conservatism may play well in the primaries, but they could cost Republicans an easy Senate seat, as Mr Akin’s did in Missouri and Richard Mourdock’s in Indiana.

Yet Messrs Akin and Mourdock lost to veteran politicians; Ms Nunn is untested, and so far running on little more than a familiar surname. Like Kay Hagan, the incumbent senator in North Carolina, and Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state challenging Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, she faces peril on all sides: too liberal, she risks alienating moderates; too centrist, she risks appearing bland, inauthentic and shifty; too conservative, she risks further depressing Democratic turnout—not to mention angering the national party, on whom she will no doubt depend for networking and money.

via Political dynasties: Exit Saxby, enter Nunn? | The Economist.