Without a positive message to run on, Republicans leaned into gratuitous personal insults of their opponents, thinking that’s worked for Trump before. But it didn’t, and doesn't.

Closing out a frenetic, final campaign sprint the weekend before Election Day, President Donald Trump laid the groundwork to reject potential GOP losses by pre-positioning election conspiracy theories in key states. In one stark example, the president fused naked racism with election conspiracies in an escalating…