Democrats’ risky bet on GOP election deniers paid off. Should they do it again?

WASHINGTON — Winning elections is no easy feat. Candidates and their campaigns raise millions of dollars, knock on tens of thousands of doors, appear at dozens of pancake breakfasts and town halls, and send out oodles of mailers. This election cycle, some Democrats deployed a more risky strategy — helping their Republican opponents.

The idea behind the scheme was to persuade Republican primary voters to send their most extreme candidates to the general election, with the hope that swing voters wouldn’t be able to stomach them, and instead vote for the Democratic candidate. Democrats and their allies aided far-right candidates