On Tuesday night, far-right state Del. Dan Cox won the Maryland gubernatorial primary. He was leading his closest competitor, Kelly Schulz, by 16 percentage points Wednesday night. Hed won the most conservative counties of the state, near the West Virginia border, with more than 60% of the vote. He won generally liberal counties, like Baltimore City and the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Schulz, a former Cabinet officer for the popular GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, is managing to win only two of the states 24 jurisdictions.

Cox is wholly unelectable in Maryland, a state President Joe Biden won by 30 percentage points, where liberal college-educated white voters and Black voters are both plentiful. A fierce advocate of former President Donald Trumps lies about the election, Cox arranged a bus caravan for Trump supporters to attend the Jan. 6, 2021, Washington rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. During the attack, Cox tweeted, Mike Pence is a traitor.

Thats not all: Cox supported impeaching Hogan over his support for COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as mask mandates. He has at least flirted with the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. He supports gutting Marylands gun control laws and heavily restricting abortion rights.

A certain form of punditry will tell you Coxs victory is the result of Democratic meddling: The Democratic Governors Association, wanting to ensure an easy victory in November for the Democratic candidate, spent more than $1 million on ads highlighting these stances ahead of Tuesdays primary. Democratic groups, especially the DGA, have spent tens of millions of dollars on similar ads aiming to promote similarly unelectable candidates in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois and elsewhere.

These efforts have prompted no small amount of teeth-gnashing. Republicans who have stood up to Trumps election lies, including Hogan, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) , have suggested it shows Democrats are not serious when they call these candidates a threat to democracy.

Other Democrats, often glancing back at Hillary Clintons not-so-hidden hopes that Trump would win the GOP presidential primary in 2016, say these efforts are doomed to backfire.

Many of these concerns are legitimate. Its fully possible a candidate like Doug Mastriano, the Christian nationalist and election denier who won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Pennsylvania, could win in what looks like a strong year for Republicans. (Polling shows Mastriano trailing Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, by surmountable margins.) Some Democratic operatives have suggested the millions spent now would be of more use in November.

Theres also an obvious question about whether its ethical to support candidates who threaten democracy in any fashion.

But many of these criticisms ignore a more salient fact: GOP voters want candidates like Mastriano and Cox. The fact that these candidates think the 2020 presidential election was stolen, that they wholeheartedly embrace conspiracy theories, Christian nationalism and unflinching conservative views are features in a GOP primary, not bugs. Otherwise Democratic meddling wouldnt work.

Furthermore, Republican leaders have stood by candidates who have espoused similar views. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declined to kick Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) off of her committee positions. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is set to spend millions this fall boosting the campaign of Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who sought to overturn Bidens win in the Silver State.

None of the ads Democrats have aired have hidden their purposes. In the past, Democratic meddling efforts have used anodyne names like Duty and Country to hide who was behind the television ads they funded. That hasnt been the case in 2022: Democratic candidates and groups have aired ads under their own name or otherwise made it clear Democrats are behind the ads.

And most of these ads have been straightforward recitations of the Republican candidates stances on the issues. For example, look at the DGA ad boosting Cox. It mentions Trumps endorsement, Coxs support for overturning the 2020 election results, his support for gun rights and opposition to abortion rights.

Republicans who opposed Cox, led by Hogan, held press conferences to highlight what the DGA was doing. It did not matter to the states Republican voters, who happily ignored their states ultra-popular governor. (Here, it is worth noting that Hogans fellow ultra-popular East Coast Republican governor, Massachusetts Charlie Baker, chose not to run for reelection after it was clear he would lose to a Trump-endorsed challenger in a primary.)

Democrats also noted Hogan hardly seemed totally dedicated to Coxs defeat, spending time in the weeks leading up to the election campaigning in New Hampshire and meeting donors at a Republican Governors Association meeting in Colorado as he readies a potential 2024 presidential run.

A second race in Maryland on Tuesday drives home the clear GOP desire for ultraconservative candidates. Republicans nominated Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate activist whose views are even more right-wing than Coxs, in the race for attorney general. There was no Democratic interference in the race. Peroutka was leading his opponent, moderate former prosecutor Jim Shalleck, by a 16-point margin on Wednesday night, identical to Coxs lead over Schulz.

Similarly, Mastriano consistently led in polling in the Pennsylvania primary well before any Democratic attempt to put their thumb on the scale. Darren Bailey, the conservative candidate whom Democrats promoted in Illinoiss governor race, did not have a consistent lead but ultimately won by 42 percentage points.