Some campaigns are turning out to be doozies — of the worst variety. The worst campaigns of 2014

The 2014 election is being driven by sweeping national forces — an unpopular president, a shaky economy and, increasingly, national security.

Yet for candidates, the fundamentals of running a strong campaign matter as much as ever. And this year, some campaigns are turning out to be doozies — of the worst variety.


From repeated gaffes to destabilizing staff shakeups to unearthed skeletons from the past, all that and more is here in POLITICO’s look at the worst campaigns of 2014:

Bruce Braley

It’s hard to think of a candidate who’s made as many high-profile gaffes as Braley, a Democratic congressman and Iowa Senate hopeful.

In a radio interview last year, Braley complained about the impact the government shutdown was having on the House gym. “There’s hardly anybody working down there. There’s no towel service, we’re doing our own laundry down there.”

In a video of him speaking to a gathering of trial lawyers in Texas, Braley described Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, whom Iowans have elected to the Senate six times, as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law.” Braley was warning the group that Grassley is poised to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee if Republicans win the Senate.

Finally, while marching in a parade in July, Braley was caught on video appearing to say that he’s a farmer — even though there’s no evidence to suggest he is. (Braley’s campaign says he made the remark after mishearing what a parade-goer was asking him.)

Braley has also had to deal with a series of unflattering stories detailing a nasty dispute between his wife and a neighbor whose chickens invaded the Braleys’ yard.

It’s all given Republicans ammunition to brand Braley as out of touch. In July, with his lead over GOP hopeful Joni Ernst evaporating, Braley shook up his campaign, replacing his admaker and pollster. Today, polls show Braley, who is defending the seat Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin has held for three decades, in essentially a tied race.

Eric Cantor

Cantor’s blowout primary loss to an obscure college professor, Dave Brat, came as a complete shock to just about everyone.

But in retrospect, maybe it shouldn’t have.

From start to finish, Cantor ran a lackadaisical, messy campaign. He ignored key conservative groups that ultimately threw their support to Brat, lost his control over the local Republican Party machinery and spent little time campaigning in the district. Cantor, who long had his eye on the House speakership, seemed more interested in Washington than on his suburban Richmond constituents.

Cantor’s biggest mistake might have been running a series of hard-hitting TV ads attacking Brat by name. Brat’s advisers later said the spots provided critical name ID with voters who’d never heard of him.

Few tears are being shed for Cantor now: He quickly landed new digs — and a multimillion-dollar salary — at a Wall Street investment bank.

Wendy Davis

Davis’ June 2013 filibuster against a restrictive anti-abortion measure in the Texas Legislature endeared her to liberals nationwide, with everyone from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to actress Lena Dunham voicing support. All of a sudden, it seemed, Democrats had a high-wattage candidate capable of the seemingly impossible: turning Texas blue.

It’s been all downhill from there for Davis, a candidate for Texas governor.

A Dallas Morning News story in January raised questions about inconsistencies in how she recounted her life story. In March, she had a weaker-than-expected showing against an obscure and underfunded primary opponent. A month later she was dissed by her own party’s governors association. And in June, the state senator shook up her campaign.

Meanwhile, in a conservative state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, Davis has struggled to demonstrate that she’s focused on more than abortion rights.

A recent New York Times poll showed Davis trailing Republican state Attorney General Greg Abbott by double digits.

Sean Eldridge

Eldridge’s 2014 campaign may be the most confounding of them all. A venture capitalist married to Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, the 28-year-old Eldridge initially looked well positioned to make a serious play for an upstate New York congressional seat.

Instead, it’s been one problem after the next. He’s been widely characterized as a carpetbagger. He split with his campaign manager over the summer. He’s faced endless questions about his qualifications, and he’s had a poor relationship with the news media.

For all the speculation that Eldridge would dump big bucks into the race, it hasn’t happened. Through the end of June, he’d raised only a little more than the Republican incumbent, Rep. Chris Gibson. And the money he has raised hasn’t always been put to good use: In one of Eldridge’s first TV ads, he awkwardly referred to himself in the third person.

One recent poll showed Eldridge losing by 24 points.

Ed Fitzgerald

Bad headlines. Campaign upheaval. Awful poll numbers.

Ed Fitzgerald has it all.

When Fitzgerald launched his campaign last year, Democrats hoped he would wage a serious challenge to GOP Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate. But Fitzgerald, the Cuyahoga County executive, has been crushed by scrutiny into his past — specifically, revelations that early one morning in 2012, police had found Fitzgerald in a car with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

Fitzgerald maintained that he’d done nothing improper. But after the story broke in August, his campaign struggled to contain the damage. In the days that followed, it was revealed that, at the time he was found with the woman, he’d been driving with a learner’s permit and hadn’t had a full license for a decade.

Last month, several senior members of Fitzgerald’s campaign departed, and a recent poll showed Kasich climbing to a 30-point lead over Fitzgerald.

Chris McDaniel

For a while, it looked like McDaniel would be one of 2014’s brightest stars. In a June GOP primary battle, he nearly knocked off 36-year Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran.

But McDaniel fell just short in a runoff three weeks later. Then things really went south.

McDaniel has challenged the legitimacy of Cochran’s election, charging that Democrats illegally cast ballots in the runoff. A Mississippi judge threw out the challenge. But McDaniel hasn’t stopped pushing to overturn the results. He’s now trying to take a case to the state Supreme Court.

Some conservatives contend that McDaniel is only hurting himself.

“[S]ome McDaniel supporters can’t think about anything but winning this one primary,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter wrote in a July editorial. “They don’t care that they’re gambling with a Republican majority in the Senate — or destroying McDaniel’s future prospects.”

Pat Roberts

If Republicans fall short in their quest to retake the Senate, how heartbreaking would it be if deep red Kansas gets in the way?

It’s a possibility Republican officials are fretting — so much so that national GOP strategists have rushed top strategists to the aid of Roberts, the incumbent senator, as he tries to fend off a challenge from independent candidate Greg Orman.

Roberts’ reelection campaign has been rocky all year long. The New York Times published a damaging story in February detailing how little time he spends in the state. Then last month, Roberts won his primary with only 48 percent of the vote. Afterward, he caught flak when a spokesman said Roberts would be spending a few days resting in Washington before heading back to the campaign trail for the general election.

The latest bad headline?

Stumping on Tuesday, Roberts said the U.S. was on the road to “national socialism” — a line likely to endear him to conservatives, but not to the moderates whose support he’ll need in the general election.