1. Rankling fellow Dems: What happens if you prop up an election denier who ekes out a win in November?

“What makes this moment unique is that we are in a democratic crisis,” says Democratic strategist HOWARD WOLFSON. “You have a situation where there are people running for office who basically don’t believe in the rule of law and don’t believe in democracy, and potentially elevating them into positions of power. The Democratic Party putting people into positions where they may actually get elected and have control over the election system in this country — people who don’t believe in democracy — is a very, very risky strategy. Very dangerous.”

2. Inadvertently helping Republicans: If your preferred GOP opponent loses their primary, you’ve just spent money branding the new Republican nominee as the moderate choice.

That’s effectively what happened in Colorado, where JOE O’DEA won the GOP nomination for Senate. “[Democrats] spent millions of dollars saying that Joe was moderate, supporting … bipartisan infrastructure deals, saying that he was pro-choice or using different phrasing on being open to that choice between a woman and their doctor early on,” says ZACK RODAY, O’Dea’s campaign manager. “It’s much easier to get someone’s vote when they’ve already voted for you. That’s going to be easier for us to get those votes come November.”