candidates

The internal election spilled into public view, with an op-ed appearing in The New York Times, and 13 of the club’s past presidents wrote an open letter decrying the anti-immigrant candidates as bigots.

It represents a failure of the Republican Party to filter out candidates who are egregiously unfit for office.

More than 8,800 candidates are in the fray in an election marked by a low-key campaign.

While it's a tactic that the GOP has also used to prop up candidates on the opponents' left flank, Democrats have not used that as a basis to challenge an election result.

There were reports of abuse from candidates including slashing tyres, throwing milkshakes and targeting candidates' families.