The day after the midterm elections, on what should have been a day of reckoning for Democrats, Republicans are instead the ones who should be doing some serious soul-searching.
Polls had predicted for weeks that voters were motivated by concerns over 40-year-high inflation and the economy, in addition to a rise in illegal immigration and crime – and that they believed Republicans were best suited to address these problems. President Joe Biden’s approval ratings were also in the tank.
Voters’ anxieties didn’t just disappear. So what in the world happened?
Blame Donald Trump’s obsession with being a GOP kingmaker. His failures this week should serve as a warning to Republicans that if they don’t distance themselves immediately from the embattled former president – or, heaven forbid, if they back him to run in 2024 – then they are in store for a shellacking in subsequent elections.
Opinions in your inbox:Get exclusive access to our columnists and the best of our columns every day
A ‘searing indictment’
Marc Thiessen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, summed things up well on Fox News, calling the election results a “searing indictment” of the GOP.
Even though voters weren’t happy with the direction of the country or what was happening to their pocketbooks, in many cases they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the Republican candidate.
“The Republican Party needs to do a really deep introspection, look in the mirror right now, because this is an absolute disaster,” Thiessen observed.
Election analysis:What if we told you Trump helps Warnock in Georgia, not Walker
This seems to be the consensus among conservative pundits, as they try to make sense of the missed red wave – or as one of my colleagues put it, the “red ripple.”
As of this writing, control of Congress is still unknown. It shouldn’t have been this close, given how midterms typically punish the party in power.
It turns out, voters – even those deeply worried about gas prices and grocery bills – couldn’t bring themselves to support candidates with flimsy qualifications or who bought into 2020 election lies.
Unfortunately, there were too many of those candidates – largely thanks to Trump’s interference in the primaries. Those candidates made it to the ballot in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states.
How to lose your election graciously:‘I have a privilege right now … to concede this race’
Candidates fared better without Trump
In fact, it’s the Republicans candidates who ran apart from Trump who fared the best.
The clearest example of this is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ landslide victory. Trump had targeted DeSantis in the days leading up to the election, mocking him and issuing veiled threats against him.
It didn’t work. Florida residents know he’s a good governor, and voted accordingly. (As I recently wrote, DeSantis is the GOP’s best chance at moving past Trump, and Trump sees him as his biggest threat.)
Is DeSantis 2024 frontrunner?:We just got through the midterms, but the DeSantis-Trump rivalry has already begun
Then there’s Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who easily bested his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their 2018 race, and Kemp did this in spite of Trump. Trump harbored resentment toward Kemp, who refused to bow to Trump’s bullying over the presidential election results in 2020.
The Georgia Senate race, however, is a different story.
Candidate caliber does matter
Trump-backed Republican Herschel Walker is slightly trailing incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. The race is now headed for a runoff, much like we saw in 2020.
If Walker had proved a stronger candidate, Kemp’s popularity and nearly 8-point lead over Abrams could have pushed him to victory.
That is true in Ohio as well. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine handily beat his opponent by more than 25 percentage points, yet Trump-anointed Senate candidate J.D. Vance squeaked out a nearly 7-point victory over Democrat Tim Ryan.
Voters split their tickets, carefully choosing those who deserved their support.
Similarly, Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman should have been easily beatable, given his physical challenges following a stroke. Yet Trump’s choice of Dr. Mehmet Oz flopped.
These trends are visible throughout the country, up and down the ballot. Trump has already tried to distance himself from his bad choices. In an interview Tuesday with NewsNation, he said, “Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all, OK, but it’ll probably be just the opposite.”
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or scream at such nonsense, even if we’re used to it from him.
Trump may blithely absolve himself of any wrong for his meddling in this disaster of an election, but the Republican Party shouldn’t.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
More from Ingrid Jacques:
Progressives want to ban Amy Coney Barrett’s book. How can they think that’s OK?
Horrendous attack on Paul Pelosi highlights hypocrisy and political opportunism
Biden said Congress passed student loan cancellation. That’s a lie.
Leave a Reply