When I stopped laughing because El-Sayed has inadvertently flushed out another pretender just by being himself, I realized I wasn't surprised.

Stevens' fiance has been stumping for Mike Rogers all along, and while people of differing politics can and do get married, it takes a LOT of passion to go out and actually work for a candidate, which he did and still is. For me, it's not so much a red flag as a question mark.

But then there was the ad that attacked her own side, and its follow-up of her desperately trying to make something out of nothing, low-key harassing El-Sayed until he simply disinvited her to his upcoming event.

And now, the day of his event and standing outside, she's thrown off her cloak and shown her real allegiance.

If you look at what she has said and what she has brought, it's pretty clear she was only ever a Republican in a Dem suit anyway.

tensions boiled over days before the election

Yeah, no. That's a very fact neutral, implied "both sides" way of saying she kept trying to throw El-Sayed off his game until he threw her out, and now she's just attacking openly. Not a lot has really changed here.

Now I'm wondering how much cash I'd bet on finding out her campaign was planned to this end all along: to either win and then switch sides, or to lose explosively before the election in such a way that it cratered her opponent's chances.

In the end it doesn't look like she's succeeded in anything at all, beyond showing her own true colors.