Among Republicans there's a long tradition of guilt by association, e.g. Jeremiah Wright.

I remember how Hannity lead viewers around by the nose: Obama likes, Wright, Wright likes Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan hates while people, says they are the devil. Then he left it to viewers to close the loop "therefore, Obama hates white people".

It doesn't matter if the worst example is a candidate or not. It is normal for party elders to endorse whoever wins the nomination, and rip the nominee of the other party as some sort of nut. The slogan among Dems is "vote blue, no matter who". The oddity is when a bunch like supposedly Dem leaning "Third Way", campaigns against Dems, implicitly favoring the corporatist Repubs.

Another group is running an ad, scaring viewers with pix of El-Sayed, Bernie, and OAC, and saying that Benson (current Secretary of State and Dem candidate for Gov) is the same. The ad adds "this is not Whitmer's Democratic party". That ad is run by the "Michigan Victory Fund" which us run by the Republican Governor's Association.

Here's the ad.

michigan-victoryfund.com: Michigan Victory Fund

We remember when Trump was flamed, by Dems, for being anywhere near Nick Fuentes too.

Steve