Some Republicans are rushing headlong into a campaign that will become the most destructive, divisive and racially charged of any in the country.

The results for Maine – and for people of color living in our state – will be devastating.

A group of Republican activists is working to place a People’s Veto on the ballot to overturn a recently passed law that would allow asylum seekers to receive general assistance benefits for up to two years.

The legislation, which was LD 369, passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support in the Senate and became law when Gov. Paul LePage failed to return his veto in time. The veto case is now headed to the Maine Supreme Court.

And last weekend, the Republican State Committee voted to fund a statewide initiative on “welfare.”

Republican Party leaders told Chairman Rick Bennett to “dedicate and deploy any and all party resources he deems necessary” to get the “welfare reform” and an effort to repeal the state’s income tax on the ballot for next year.

During last year’s gubernatorial campaign, we got a taste for what we can expect if the People’s Veto gets on the ballot or there’s an initiative that targets poor people as part of an effort to eliminate the income tax. Dark, scary images, appeals to racism and fear, and the worst that politics has to offer.

Racism is real, alive and well. And while it goes far beyond the base of the Republican Party, it has a particular resonance there. It’s a problem reasonable members of the party must address.

In a Fox News poll conducted last week, Donald Trump was leading the Republican presidential candidate field, with 18 percent. Other polls show Trump with an even larger lead.

Despite his early support, Trump is a sideshow in the Republican primary.

But here’s the scary part of the poll: nearly 70 percent of Republicans said they agreed with Trump’s racist rant on immigrants from Mexico.

Trump said that Mexico is sending the U.S. it’s worst. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Even after the remarks have cost him business affiliations and created a national backlash, he has continued to attack immigrants in one of the most hateful campaigns since the early days of desegregation.

There are many Republicans, some of whom are very conservative, who reject these ideas. But the cranks in the party are capturing the headlines and will drive these two campaigns.

Members of the Maine Republican State Committee and proponents of the People’s Veto are reacting to the same dynamic that’s fueling Trump’s rise in the polls and from the success of their campaigns last year that scapegoated and attacked new immigrants to Maine.

Vox reporter Amanda Taub spoke with Tufts University political scientist Deborah Schildkraut, who studies immigration and national identity. In the interview, Schildkraut moves beyond the idea “everyone is just a racist” to paint a nuanced understanding of race as it relates to personal identity for white voters.

“There’s a strain of research that shows that if you show [white] people headlines saying things like ‘Census shows American to become a majority-minority nation by 2043,’ people become more conservative. Not just on racial issues, but on non-racial issues as well. So even if they’re not aware that they feel a sense of anxiety about ethnic change, they do.”

Later on in the same interview, Schildkraut describes other research that shows that you can plug a number of terms into the dynamic with the same result: “Hispanic,” “illegal” and “immigrant” create the same reaction. I’d add “welfare” to the list.

Maine is white. And an electoral strategy that depends on moving voters to the right by attacking and demeaning asylum seekers, other immigrants and low-income families might deliver short-term gains.

Certainly it played a part in the re-election of LePage.

But at what cost to our state? To our reputation? To the families who have moved her to escape violence and even death because of their political or religious beliefs?

Will we victimize them again by making them the focus of an all-out political assault?

It’s difficult to successfully place a People’s Veto on the ballot. Time and money are both obstacles.

But if the efforts are successful, that question is most likely to appear next June – not this November. And then, if the “welfare initiative” makes it to the November ballot, that means Maine would face 15 months of nasty, hateful campaigning.

The initiatives will set up two elections where there will only be losers, with the greatest damage heaped on people who have already suffered more than their fair share.

When the campaigns are over, our state will be much different than it is today – less welcoming, more isolated, backwards.