The ruthless pursuit of power and the defeat of Mitch McCartney during his six years running for president, Lyndon Johnson, and Nancy Pelosi
The ruthless pursuit of power is one of the non-negotiable values of the modern Republican Party. Party leaders who recognize this prosper while those who hold principle over political advancement get swept away.
Youngkin won the Virginia Governor’s Mansion last year, using a subtle campaign strategy. By speaking about the handling of gender issues in schools and referring to the integrity of elections, the former businessman was able to send enough messages to ensure attendance in pro-Trump rural counties. He was careful to keep his message relevant in the Washington, DC suburbs, where parents were frustrated with Covid-19 lock downs.
Youngkin told Republicans to get behind Lake, but also to understand the ideological choices he has to make in the future of the party.
There is nothing ostensibly wrong with a political party prioritizing a single-minded focus on winning power. Politics is the art of the possible. And successful parties and leaders understand election victories are paramount. Democratic presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Bill Clinton were known for doing what needed to be done to win, reshaping their own principles if necessary. Johnson, a former Senate majority leader, especially was ruthless in wielding his authority won at the ballot box. And more recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not dominated the House for nearly two decades without being determined to use her power.
The heritage of the party to promote global democracy against tyranny is a striking leap. Republicans who defended these values were ostracized. Cheney lost her primary to a Trump supporter this summer and the vice chair of the House Select committee did not run for reelection. Meanwhile, extremists who promote conspiracy theories and question the election, like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, are superstars in the party because the Trump base loves them.
The most striking recent example of the naked pursuit of power was when Kevin McCarthy rushed to Mar-a-Lago to repair his relationship with Trump after he criticized him on Capitol Hill. The Californian lawmaker was aware of the importance of a relationship with Trump and his base voters in how his party hoped to take control of the House.
An understanding of the path to power – for the last six years running through Trump – explains why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lived with the ex-President’s malfeasance and chaos, despite his personal disdain for Trump. Most notably, the Kentucky Republican declined to vote to convict Trump in a second impeachment trial over the insurrection, which could have made a return to power by the former President impractical.
McConnell brushed off the social media posts from Trump against his wife. He has done more than just keep quiet. The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC affiliated with the minority leader, has poured tens of millions of dollars into key races – including in states like Ohio and Georgia in a bid to bail out misfiring candidates effectively crowned as party nominees by none other than Trump.
McConnell’s affiliated super PAC is even spending in New Hampshire, where the GOP nominee has said he wouldn’t vote for the Kentucky Republican for leader. But it’s another pickup opportunity that could bolster a possible GOP majority.
The impulse to win control of Congress at all costs – even if it appears to compromise values the GOP professes to stand for – was on display when several US senators flew into Georgia earlier this month to rescue controversy-swamped Senate nominee Hershel Walker.
Walker, Fetterman, McConnell and their campaign committees. The issues of a new governor: the role of the GOP in campaigning against the alleged abortion ban
The pro- Trump nominee has faced allegations that he paid for a woman to have an abortion despite his campaign promise to support a national ban on the procedure. Although Walker denied allegations, which CNN has not independently confirmed, the furor highlighted the risky nature of his candidacy, which probably wouldn’t have happened except for his friendship with Trump.
Walker isn’t the most important thing for Cotton, Scott and McConnell. If he wins the election, he would return to power for the Republicans if he is able to win the Senate race. He was never thought to be abandoned.
He is doing the same thing now that he is allied with Trump candidates like Lake and Michigan GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, who did not lose to Trump earlier this year.
So while his endorsement may be valuable to Lake in a close gubernatorial race, her rising star power in Trump world also offered a strong incentive for his trip. And it explains the hug after his speech in which he embraced the kind of political personality who wouldn’t have been let anywhere near his events last year.
Mitch McConnell’s high-spending super PAC has a suggestion for their party’s campaign committee: Consider picking candidates in primaries who won’t collapse in the general election.
The bigger issue is former President Donald Trump’s presence on the campaign trail, especially as he teased a new campaign in the final days of the election.
Then there’s abortion, and Republican hand-wringing over their party’s failure to effectively respond to an onslaught of Democratic attacks. Some are not happy with party leaders like McConnell and McCarthy.
It was not long ago that the Republican Party looked like it was going to control the Senate and take back the majority in the House.
The Republican Party had a series of losing candidates, they were chosen for their fealty to Trump and the election denial canard, rather than a broader appeal. Democrat John Fetterman captured an open Senate seat in Pennsylvania the Republicans now hold partly because of the weakness of his carpetbagging, Trump-anointed opponent, Mehmet Oz. And that was just one of many examples.
It was a good time for the Republicans to focus on the failed policies of President Biden because he was not popular. And instead, President Trump had to insert himself and that changed the nature of the race.”
Toomey wasn’t done. He said that there is a correlation between the performance of candidates from the political party called the MagA and big losses.
The groups clashing strategies are revealed in the ad reservations. In August and September the SLF withdrew from Arizona, as the Democratic Senator Mark Kelly outraised Masters. The National Republican Senatorial Committee will spend money on Masters, a candidate who had called for new leadership in the Senate.
Whether to engage more forcefully in the 2024 primary season to avoid the problems of 2022 are among the strategic decisions now under discussion. In the next cycle, Republicans have a far more favorable Senate map, with Democrats defending 23 seats and Republicans defending 11 seats. Ohio, Montana and West Virginia are states that Trump won twice.
In the interview, Law said that their narrow strategy was partly “driven” by Democratic candidates’ ability to outraise Republicans, and “solidified” after they saw the “[National] Republican Senatorial Committee was having severe financial problems.”
Law told CNN that he and his team focused their activities on a realistic path towards 51 seats, not to hope for a red wave that could move us closer to a majority.
Sen. Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser and the Case for an Abortion Rights Action in the House of Representatives During the June 23rd Referendum
The strategy of the SLF and NRSC was different. One was in messaging; McConnell wanted a referendum on Biden’s agenda, while Scott wanted to also promote a platform of what a Republican Senate could do.
Sununu gave a boost to Chuck Morse at the most critical point in the primary, according to his spokesman.
In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion, sending the issue to the states. While the majority of Americans support a right to the procedure, and conservatives had fought for nearly 50 years to strip it away, Republicans seemed unprepared for a nationwide fight over abortion.
A House Republican also said the party was hurt by its lack of a cohesive message on abortion, saying most Republicans “turned their backs on women after Roe.”
Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser sounded down on her luck on a Wednesday call with reporters, even though she praised the victories of conservative candidates.
“I just want to emphasize the reason that we sound slightly disappointed is because the expectations were so high,” said Dannenfelser. I know a few polls but am not a pollster. Their expectations were very high.
She said that Mehmet Oz lost because he adopted an “ostrich” stance in trying to escape the hot-button issue. “Oz lost – and others – because they hoped that the issue would go away,” added Dannenfelser.
Oz aides didn’t answer a request for comment. In the debate last month, Oz said women, doctors, local political leaders should make their own abortion policy. Abortion was the top issue in the Pennsylvania Senate race, according to exit polling data conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research, and Oz appeared to perform poorly among those who said it was their most important.
Remarks on Trump’s Failure to Lead the GOP in the MAGA Sixty-Year Insights: The New York Rep. Mike Lawler
Just two years ago, the party failed to pass a policy platform, instead issuing a statement of loyalty to Trump. After Trump’s election loss and the insurrection that followed, party elites didn’t manage to bring the party with them. Instead, a majority of Republicans voted to overturn the election and most GOP voters believed that the election had been stolen.
Throughout the election cycle, McCarthy and party leaders consistently said Trump would play a key role in their midterm strategy and did not seek to put any distance between the GOP and the former president. Republican candidates were warned against making Trump a focus of their campaigns.
In other words, it isn’t just that moderates and independents were scared off by extremist candidates; MAGA voters themselves were not fully animated by their own candidates. The candidate they want is Trump, not a Don Bolduc or a Kari Lake or a Mehmet Oz.
Mike Lawler, who will be the Republican representative from New York, said he would like to see Republicans move past the former president.
I would like to see the party move forward, that’s why I told CNN. You can’t have so much focus upon the past when you’re focused on the future. The people are excited about the chance to address the challenges that we’re faced with, and I think more focus needs to be placed on the issues and the substance of those issues.
Trump kept his frequent presence in the media because of his decisions to publicly campaign in the final weeks before the election, which diminished the Republicans argument that the election was a referendum on the Biden administration, not a choice between the two parties.
Law, whose organization spent $211.5 million on TV ads this cycle and an additional $73 million from its affiliated nonprofit, the most of any group in Senate races this cycle, indicated that Trump’s reemergence on the campaign trail could’ve helped Democrats.
The Dawn of DeSantis: From the Teapot to the Hot Spot, and Back to the Innocence of the Red Tsunami
Some in the party were not willing to place blame on Trump. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is running for another term as GOP conference chair and has been floated as a potential Trump running mate, said she fully supports Trump running again in 2024 and encouraged the rest of her party to unite behind him.
Glenn Beck, the right-wing talk radio host, was half-joking when he made this suggestion the day after Tuesday’s elections, but he voiced a longing that a number of Republicans had after the midterms: a hope to linger with the visions of a red tsunami that wiped out Democratic power across the country. The party had a poor showing that many believed would be a historic slam dunk, but it was too sour to linger on.
For one Republican, though, the night got better and better as it went on. In a night that saw Florida turn into a red state, Gov. Ron DeSantis easily won reelection by more than 20 points. As Republican losses piled up, it became clear that he would not have to share the spotlight, and anyone on the right who was looking for a beacon of hope would have to go to Florida.
But before declaring this the dawn of DeSantis, remember: It is just as likely the next few weeks will be the high-water mark of his presidential aspirations. The spotlight can quickly turn into the hot seat and that’s where DeSantis is at as a national candidate and as a Trump adversary. Those who see an easy pivot from the era of Trump to the age of DeSantis are likely in for another wave of disappointment, both because of the particulars of DeSantis’ victory and the persistence of Trump’s power.
On paper, he seems like the natural heir to Trump. Since winning the governorship by a whisper-thin margin, he has consciously molded himself after Trump, picking up everything from Trump’s hand gestures to his media- bashing and calculated viciousness. In addition to abandoning asylum-seekers in Massachusetts as part of a publicity stunt, some schools were found to be teaching about racism and sexuality despite Covid-19 guidelines.
He is a strongman with a political style. He has used his position as governor to target people who are against his policies. He has sent police to round up voters with felony convictions who, confused by the state’s efforts to strip their voting rights after voters reinstated them a few years ago, mistakenly voted in recent elections. He has bent the Florida legislature to his will, whipping up support for anti-gay laws, a new redistricting map and punitive legislation targeting Disney after the company criticized the state’s infamous “don’t say gay” bill.
Senator Marco Rubio, handily re-elected to his seat in Florida, seconded the call. He wrote that he needed to make sure anyone who wants to lead us were committed to fighting for the values of the working Americans who gave us big wins like Florida.
Meanwhile, unlike the national party, the Democratic Party in Florida is in tatters, struggling to field and support candidates and to organize and mobilize voters. And Florida has a specific mix of Latino voters that is unlike most other states, weighted heavily toward immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela who respond favorably to DeSantis’s attack on Democrats as socialists.
Donald Trump is a Florida resident. The Dump Trump crowd doesn’t seem to understand how deep and unquestioningly the cult of personality around Trump is within parts of the party.
Even in the Senate where control is on the line, some Senators including Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah wrote a letter asking for a delay in leadership elections because of calls from the former president to demote Senator McConnell of Kentucky.
Bringing Back the Red Wave: The Case against the End of the 2024 Republican Legislative Campaign in Utah, where Donald Trump is most likely to win
There are multiple reasons that a red wave did not come to pass, they wrote. We need serious discussions within our conference as to why and what we can do in order to improve our chances in 2024.
The 2012 Presidential nominee of the party, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, released his own prescriptions for the future, which strongly suggested that Republican losses reflected their embrace of rage and recrimination over policy proposals. He told the Republicans they needed to work with Democrats in order to slow inflation, open up legal immigration, and address climate change.
He stated that the more frequently traveled road would be to pursue pointless investigations, threats, and government shutdowns.
On Friday, she signaled that Tuesday’s vote was a step in the right direction by saying that it was a clear victory for Team Normal.
Pat’s term in the Senate ends at the end of the year. He is speaking to his party some very hard truths.
But as Toomey’s comments make clear, there is also a group of Republicans who view this as a now-or-never moment with Trump and the party. Either they use the results of the mid-sessions to push him to the side or they just keep losing elections and he remains a dominant figure.
In battleground Michigan, Trump-endorsed Tudor Dixon lost by 11 points to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a defeat that led to a blue wave down-ballot in the state. The Trump-backed candidate for governor was defeated by 10. In the race for governor in Maryland, the Trump-backed candidate lost by 25.
Trump declared on his Truth Social website Friday that he was a Big Victory for his party, but that he was anything but a good thing.
There is, without question, a portion of the Republican Party that believes that – and will follow Trump wherever he leads them (even if it’s to electoral destruction).
The point is that he doesn’t need to be applauded for speaking out against Trump as he already left the door ajar. His voice is part of a chorus of Republicans suggesting that the election was the final straw for Trump. Will base voters listen?
The Real Issues of Racehorse Ethics: An Opposite Moment of Justice in the Light of a Realistic Event
Sign up to get the weekly column as a newsletter. We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets.
In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, “Silver Blaze,” Sherlock Holmes investigates the disappearance of a famous racehorse and the “tragic murder of its trainer.” A police inspector asks a detective if there is a point he would wish to draw his attention to.
The GOP would need to win at least four seats to regain control of the House of Representatives, and no one would have thought that would happen on the same night that the Democrats won the Senate.
On November 4th, Benjamin Wallace-Wells published a story that said the Republicans were going for a sweep in competitive Senate races like Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Wallace-Wells wrote that the word “bloodbath” kept coming up in the conversations.
“People sometimes wonder what it will take to get young people to the polls,” wrote Dolores Hernandez, a junior at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “Well, after the 2022 midterms, they no longer have to guess.”
It’s time to place in front of us the issue that will determine our future. We will turn out in droves if we know that we can have a say in issues that affect us with our votes. Hernandez and her fellow Gen Z friends saw abortion as that kind of existential issue.
Students were waiting for over four hours to be admitted to the University of Michigan for same-day voter registration on Election Day. There was a palpable sense of excitement and urgency around the election on campus. Young women were motivated by abortion rights, so there was a reason for them to participate.
No other age group was more pro-Democratic than the 18 to 29 year olds who supported Democrats over Republicans by a 63% to 34% margin.
Before the election, some pundits argued that the anger of many voters at the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade had faded after five months, and that inflation would blot out most other concerns. They also argued that President Joe Biden was out of touch for focusing a major pre-election speech on the threat election deniers running for office posed to democracy. Both of those issues are of interest to people.
The actions of several top- ticket politicians who parroted the lies of Donald Trump in the campaign was viewed by John Avlon as a repudiation of the former President.
“What a relief,” wrote Roxanne Jones. “It finally feels like a majority of voters want to re-center American politics away from the toxic, conspiracy theory-driven rhetoric we’ve experienced over the past several years.”
In Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro soundly defeated Republican candidate Doug Mastriano in the gubernatorial race. Mastriano “scared many Pennsylvanians with his brash, take-no-prisoners Trump swagger,” wrote Joyce M. Davis of The Patriot-News, the newspaper serving Harrisburg. “He inflamed racial tensions, embraced Christian nationalism, and once said women who violated his proposed abortion ban should be charged with murder. On top of all that, he’s an unapologetic election denier,” Davis observed.
“Plenty of voters are worried about unchecked progressivism on the left, but they’re even more worried about unchecked extremism on the right,” observed Tim Alberta, in the Atlantic.
“That extremism takes many forms: delegitimizing our elections system, endorsing the January 6 assault on the Capitol, cracking jokes and spreading lies about the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. And all of this extremism, which so many swing voters spurned on Tuesday, is embodied by one person: Donald Trump.”
The Midterms Should Make Republicans Nervous: The Case for a Stronger First Two Years, Not Just During the Biden Era
That might be understandable, given Biden’s track record. “The midterms make clear that Biden is a much stronger president than he is often given credit for,” wrote historian Julian Zelizer. “He has been underestimated and criticized despite having a formidable first two years. The midterms should make Republicans nervous as they think about 2024.”
Biden not only defeated an incumbent president, but was “able to move a formidable legislative agenda through Congress, overcoming fierce Republican opposition and even winning a few GOP votes along the way. The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act are known as a historic trilogy, due to their legislative track record.
“In exit polls, 28% of voters said they chose their House vote ‘to oppose Donald Trump.’ And just 37% said they had a favorable view of the former president, the presumed GOP front-runner, at least before this election. That should alarm the party.
Trump is expected to announce a comeback bid for the White House on Tuesday but some Republicans in the House and Senate did not appear ready for a repeat.
Five Lessons During Midterm Elections: The Victory of Wes Moore and the Birth of a Nation: The Death of Vladimir Putin
Some careers were made – and others broken – in Tuesday’s election. Peniel Joseph wrote about Wes Moore, who was the first Black governor of Maryland. “A campaign based on championing equal opportunity, compassion for the incarcerated, education for all children, and hope in the future can not only win, but prove infectious enough to spread across the country,” observed Joseph. “Wes Moore’s victory has recaptured some of the magic that has been lost in our politics in the tumult of the past few years. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.”
It was the defeat of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that Sophia A. Nelson found most significant. She had lost to him four years ago, when she tangled with him.
In Texas, Beto O’Rourke was defeated by Greg Abbott for governor. In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Nicole Russell wrote that after “his third huge loss, it’s time for him to stop running for offices in Texas. We have had enough of Beto for a long time. … His liberal policies are unwelcome and unwanted in Texas.”
Russia withdrew its troops from the city of Kherson, which it captured in the spring, in a new sign the invasion is faltering. The architect of the war, President Vladimir Putin, may be able to retain control of his nation for a time despite the debacle, wrote Mark Galeotti. Whatever happens, it will have an impact on the battlefield. Russia will not be established as a great power on the basis of its military strength, and so will Putin’s ambitions of becoming one of the nation’s great state-builders.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html
Five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant: Why are men not lust objects?
The actor Chris Evans received an accolade that was first bestowed on Mel Gibson in 1985, “a candidate whose appeal, I think we can agree, has not aged well,” Sara Stewart observed.
“People magazine recently announced this year’s Sexiest Man Alive, which makes it a great time to ask: Can we get rid of the whole tradition of People’s Sexiest Man Alive?”
Think about how crazy it is to proclaim anyone the hottest person in the world. Sexiness isn’t determined by it’s nature. So it’s a winky joke that People offers up its own tastes as if they are everyone’s. And by making their subject male, they’re tacitly saying: See, we’re not objectifying women, we’re so evolved. Men can be lust objects as well. Maybe that was (arguably) a subversive statement in the 1980s, when Playboy, Penthouse and other magazines imposed a misogynist ideal of sexiness at the newsstands. But now? Not a lot.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html
Five-lessons midterms-opinion-columns-galant: What I can and cannot do in my life
The new season of “The Crown,” which was released on Wednesday, charts the royals’ course through the tumult of the 1990s, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce, and a fire at Windsor Castle.
But as Thomas noted, “The Crown” hasn’t “masqueraded as a documentary or claimed to perfectly replicate private moments between royal family members. It has done what historical TV shows, films, plays and literary fiction always have: Use factual events as loose outlines, fill them in using artistic license and trust the audience’s intelligence to tell the difference. Its creator and writer, Peter Morgan, is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for ‘services to drama,’ not history…”
Roxanne Jones isn’t going to lend her help to Musk in his efforts to fix the social networking site. She’s had enough. Jones deleted his account on the day that Musk became the platform’s new owner. I decided it was time to say goodbye after a 12-year relationship with the micro-messaging service, which I admitted brought some moments of joy.
That small act might not make much of a difference in the micro-blogs of 238.8 million users. I quit on account of power and self-care. I was setting limits to what I can and cannot allow in my life.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html
Five Lessons Learn to Get Out of It: What Can You Do with All That Money? A Comment on Bill Carter and his wife Bethe Carter
Bill Carter and his wife don’t normally buy lottery tickets, “having long concluded that it felt like burning a $10 bill (sometimes a $20 bill) on a barbecue grill.”
They bought a few tickets after the Powerball went for a $2 billion in a single day. How could we not? Think about what we can do with all that money.
“Really: What would we do with all that money? What else can the family do after helping the kids, buying several homes, and donating to charity? Do you want to build a money bin and swim around in it? (Unwise. Money can make you liquid, but it is not, in fact, liquid.)”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/opinions/five-lessons-midterms-opinion-columns-galant/index.html
The Man of Steel and the Elections: The Case of Joe Biden and his Daughter, Molly, during the First U.S. Presidential Campaigns
The Man of Steel’s origin story is well-known. As pop culture historian Roy Schwartz noted, “In 1934, at the age of 18, (Joseph) Shuster and classmate Jerome Siegel came up with a revolutionary idea: Superman. Siegel wrote in his unpublished memoir that every newspaper syndicate in the US rejected the superhero concept because it was too fantastic for children to relate to.
Helen Louise Cohen, who lived in Cleveland, might have had a resemblance to Lois Lane due to her relationship with Shuster. At least one drawing of Cohen and sketches of Superman were included in the sent sketches by Shuster.
Ultimately, she broke it off, choosing instead to marry “a dashing officer, later awarded the Legion of Merit and eventually becoming a colonel in the Army’s 88th Infantry Division.” Shuster was too nearsighted to enlist in the military during World War II.
Schwartz states that Cohen told her sons that she was too mild-mannered for them. Schwartz wrote that the family is sharing his sketches with the world after she kept his letters and sketches.
Editor’s Note: David Axelrod, a senior CNN political commentator and host of “The Axe Files,” was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. This commentary is his own, and his opinions are not included in it. View more opinion on CNN.
That politician was Joe Biden, who whispered that salty line (in fuller form) to then-President Barack Obama a dozen years ago at the signing of the Affordable Care Act, only to have it captured on a hot mic.
Biden would be forgiven if he had shouted it again from the rooftops of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he’s attending an Asian summit, when he learned that Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was projected to win reelection in the Silver State, guaranteeing Democrats’ continued control of the US Senate.
It was the latest turn in an astonishing midterm election week during which Democrats defied history and a raft of downbeat metrics to score unexpected victories across the country.
With our democracy at stake and with the American people having a clear choice, Schumer said Democrats will retain the majority in the Senate.
Even if the House blocks other major Biden initiatives, the Senate has the sole authority to confirm judicial nominations and key executive appointments.
McConnell and his Senate majority changed history by allowing Trump and not Obama to fill the Supreme Court vacancies.
Barrett and the two other conservative justices Trump named have profoundly reshaped the high court and opened the door to radical decisions such as the ruling that upended abortion rights, a half-century after the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed them. (Ironically, the court decision overturning Roe caused a backlash that may have had much to do with Democratic victories in Nevada and elsewhere this year.)
Implications of the Brexit Debacle for the United States and For the Future of American Democracy: A Rejoinder to Churchill and Murdoch
After losing his majority in the 1945 parliamentary elections in Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill supposedly received assurances from his wife, Lady Clementine, that it was a “blessing in disguise.”
Normally, midterm elections are harsh on the party of incumbent presidents, particularly when public views of the economy and that President’s performance are negative. The Democrats lost a lot in previous elections.
But this year, the typical referendum on the ruling party and President became equally a judgment of the opposition and its putative leader, Trump. It was a repudiation of the beliefs about the election.
That verdict was not lost on some Republican politicians who, out of fear and opportunism, have stuck with Trump despite knowing better. Watching their quick post-primary exodus from his camp, led by Rupert Murdoch and his right-wing media empire, has been something to behold. For them, trespasses against democracy and decency may be tolerated, but losing cannot.
Trump is an unparalleled escape artist, and his continued sway with primary voters will hold some Republican politicians in place. They may continue to heed his insistence that any cooperation with Biden in Congress is tantamount to treason. But fear of Trump must now be weighed against the cost of Trump, and the result may be that more Republicans in Congress will have a freer hand to work with Biden on select issues. While I’m not betting on it, that would be a blessing for the country.
While Biden was overseas, meeting his peers from around the world and ready for a sidebar meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, the verdict from Nevada came.
The President may have had to take a backseat in this discussions because of the debacle that happened in the election. It would have added to suspicions among our allies and adversaries about Biden’s political viability and theDurability of American democracy.
The people gave their say and dealt a blow to Trump and the Republicans who do not believe in democracy.
At the same time, Senate GOP leaders are pressing forward with a mid-week vote to affirm their control of the conference, even though some conservatives are pushing for changes at the top.
Republican senators who returned to the Capitol on Monday evening for the first time since Election Day were flummoxed by how the party squandered its opportunity.
What if the GOP voted first-time in 2020? “There wasn’t a single thing that we didn’t expect,” says Cornyn
John Cornyn, Republican senator from Texas, said that there wasn’t one single factor in the process of becoming a first-time candidate.
“We’re going to have a very robust and candid conversation over the course of the next couple of days,” Thune said. “I think that there’s no question that we didn’t achieve expectations in this election.”
“I think looking forward is always a better campaign strategy,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. “Looking back to 2020 obviously didn’t work out.”
Rob Portman said the need for better candidate recruitment was the reason for the GOP’s poor performance.
Portman referred to the Ohio Senate Republican nominee, who defeated Tim Ryan, as an eight-point winner in the general election. Portman said that the Republican Party ran candidates that were not supported by more independent-minded voters.
Republicans are likely to have won significantly more votes for their U.S. House candidates than Democrats, but the Democrats benefited from the geographic distribution of their support and the strength of several of their House incumbents in hard-fought races. In cities like Philadelphia, voter turnout was not as high as in other cities and Democrats have not been successful in getting Latino voters to back them. The Republicans’ strength in Florida as well as New York was remarkable — and those are two of the largest states in the country. Both parties have outcomes to celebrate and a certain degree of liability to watch.
Cornyn doesn’t understand why the Biden administration considers that a victory. It’s like the old saying, there isn’t much so thrilling as being shot at and missed.
What do South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds think about the Republican Party and Election Denied: When he’s on the mountain, and how to see someone from the bench come up and lead the country?
The Republicans appear on track to hold a narrow majority in the House and flip the chamber, but CNN hasn’t projected that yet.
South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds refused to say if he would vote for Donald Trump. “That’s how we win elections. A reasonable person who would unite the party.”
The Republican Party will be thrust directly into the race for the presidency in 2024, thanks to the help of Trump, who will be demanding endorsements and fealty from elected officials who are still trying to figure out what happened last week.
“I think that President Trump and election denying was an albatross around Republican necks,” Romney said. I believe he’s been on the mountain too long. We’ve lost three races with him. I would like to see someone from the bench take his place as leader of our party and lead the country.
Romney thinks he’s been on the mountain too long. We have lost three races with him. And I’d like to see someone from the bench, come up and take his place and lead our party and help lead the country.”
The Pain of the Ex-President: Trump’s Sentiment in the Georgia Senate Campaign and the Loss of his Allies on Capitol Hill
Republicans need to get their focus on winning the Georgia Senate election even though Democrats have already won the majority in the chamber.
He said that if we were to get that seat we would really need it and need all of our efforts to be devoted to it.
The Republican soul-searching comes at a critical moment for Trump and the party. Senate GOP leaders want to move on from the Trump years, and court centrist and mainstream candidates who will appeal to the suburban voters who disliked the former president.
The point is that Trump is about something. He is the leader of the Republican Party, yes, but he simply does not prioritize the good of the party over his own good.
It was not unusual for the House and Senate to recoil at the prospect of former President Donald Trump running for a third time for president this week, as a sign of his waning support on Capitol Hill after years of controversy and scandal.
Most of the Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives were against running for president in 2024, instead hoping that another candidate emerges or that the field is big enough to make someone else appealing to voters who don’t agree with them.
That sentiment was echoed up and down-the-line by one-time allies of the former president – underscoring how the de facto leader of their party has grown increasingly alienated on Capitol Hill – especially after last Tuesday’s elections.
Why Do We Want a Trump Presidential Candidate? Floating the Conversation with Kevin Cramer, Sen. Tim Scott, and Ron DeSantis
Kevin Cramer, a Trump ally and Republican from North Dakota, said no one is entitled to these jobs. He is not entitled to it. I will not be making a decision to endorse at this time.
Others began floating rival candidates. The Republican senator from Kansas said he was looking at fellow Kansans and ex-secretary of state, Mike Pundit, as well as South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.
“I think we have lots of Republicans who are interested in being our nominee for president,” Moran said when asked about Trump. “And I’m interested in letting the American people make this decision. I am interested in seeing those people rise to the top.
The Florida lawmaker dodged on whether she would support Trump, but said that the next Republican presidential contender was coming from Florida. Ron DeSantis, the state’s newly reelected governor, is a favorite among Washington Republicans.
Several Republicans blamed President Trump for pushing forward lackluster candidates and stressing about his 2020 election loss as they tried to make a case against Democrats.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said that it’s clear that “relitigating the 2020 election is not a winning strategy.”
The view was not quite as nice in private. A moderate-leaning Republican said that a Trump presidential bid was the same as the seventh season of “The Apprentice”. People are sick of it, they want to turn the channel. Let’s find something else.”
Begala had three reasons for opposing the proposal. First, “it undermines President Biden’s powerful message that Trump leads a mega-MAGA fanatical fringe that is a clear and present danger to our democracy.” Trump is still a big force in American politics, especially in the Republican Party. I don’t want Trump near the White House. Third, “while I respect the political success of governors like DeSantis, Youngkin, Hogan and Christie, if the Democrats can’t beat them, we don’t deserve the White House.”
If Democrats truly worry about the fragility of American democracy, they should not take any steps that would facilitate Trump’s return to office, even if that means a higher chance that they lose the presidency. The threats to democracy are more important than the chance of holding the presidency with Trump.
The Failure of Republican Party Electoraty to Win: The Case of New York, Wisconsin, and the Other Mid-Atlantic States
There is not a single narrative that comes out of this election. In this election, we saw some significant differences among the states. Pennsylvania and Michigan — and even Wisconsin and Arizona — ended up somewhat better than the pre-election polls suggested (in some cases, quite a bit better). Democrats should be happy. They did not fare well in Florida and New York. So which lesson is the right one?
Sean Trende makes the same point as he said that Republicans made gains among African Americans and Hispanics but, with a few exceptions, these extra votes did not translate to seats. Because the Voting Rights Act requires that these voters be placed into heavily Hispanic/Black districts, which become overwhelmingly Democratic districts, it takes huge shifts in vote performance among these voters to win a district outright, and Republicans aren’t there right now.”
The shift was predicted by the basics, with the Republican president governing with low approval ratings when the economy is bad. In a few states and races, the Democratic candidates beat the indicators. The story seems like Republicans defeated themselves relative to the fundamentals by running low-quality candidates in some key races.
For Republicans, Wronski wrote, “appealing to Trump voters without Trump on the ballot may not be a winning strategy. The types of voters who are enthusiastic for Trump do not seem equally enthusiastic for his endorsees.”
They should be reassured by their prospects, or feel good about their place in the country. The national electorate is polarized with close elections. Ultimately, I believe turnout is going to matter more than persuasion.
The parties, Tausanovitch continued, “are very evenly matched and this doesn’t look like it is on a path to change quickly. The election was close. I expect the next presidential election to be close as well.” He admitted to Trumpendorsed candidates.
This doesn’t mean that a Trump-centered Republican Party cannot win or that Trump himself cannot win. He nearly did it in 2020. The election is expected to be close if he is the nominee.
The governor of New Hampshire, who won a second term in the November election, told a meeting of the Republican Jewish coalition that he has a dislike for Trump. We should stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in the primaries and get behind the winners that can close the deal in November.
Republican fury grew over their failure to take back the Senate and GOP leaders were at odds over their strategy, with the former president still maintaining a dominant hold on the party.
The GOP is having to answer for the loss of a critical Senate seat in Georgia, and the expansion of the Democrats’ majority.
The 2020 election denialism that is central to the Trump platform will ruin the Republicans in future cycles because they refused to reject him as their standard bearer, according to some top Republicans.
The Georgia loss is the latest in a string of political problems that has caused a new rift within his party and raised questions about his viability as a presidential candidate in the future. Capitol Hill reckons the loss in Georgia and shortfalls in Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania were the final straw for him after his Mar-a-Lago dinner with antisemites.
Graham added: “He’s still very popular in the party. People are happy with his presidency. They appreciate his fighting spirit. But there is a beginning to be a sense, can he win?
John Thune, the No. 2 Republican said the GOP tried to focus on inflation and the US-Mexican border while ignoring President Joe Biden and his policies. But when Trump stumped for candidates late in the campaign season, as he did for Republican Senate nominees Adam Laxalt in Nevada and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, it gave Democrats fresh ammunition on the trail.
“A lot of the candidates who had problems in these elections were running on the 2020 election being stolen and I don’t think independent voters were having it,” Thune said.
“When I talked to voters … what they wanted to know is if their votes are never going to be diluted,” said Sen. Rick Scott, the Florida Republican and outgoing chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It was what was really important to me.
Jon Tester’s Campaign for the Preside: The Implications for the Future of the GOP and the Promise of a Good National Message
Jon Tester hasn’t decided if he will run to retain the seat he’s held since 2007.
His state could have a GOP primary, which could provide a preview of how the party will deal with fights going forward. Scott’s decision not to participate in the NRSC resulted in some people wanting a heavy hand to eliminate candidates they think are unelectable.
Cornyn said that the fundamental lesson was that it took one kind of campaign to win a primary and another to win a general election. If you want to run a general election like you did in the primary, you will lose if you don’t appeal to more people.
Scott, who clashed with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell this year over embracing a policy agenda that the Kentucky Republican repudiated, said the GOP needs to focus on another matter: Having a “good national message.”
Republican senators up-and-down the line were united in their belief that the GOP needs to put a renewed focus on mail-in voting, something that Trump has been against in the past.
I think that President Trump has had a big impact on the outcome of the primary, but it has not worked out well. His endorsement can be the kiss of death.