By Andrew Joseph Moore
If you happen to be a member of the Republican Party, the federal 2020 election did not go your way. Not only did the GOP lose the presidency, but they also failed to obtain a majority in the House of Representatives. After being the majority in the Senate since the 114 Congress, which ran from 2015 – 2017, they became the minority after the Republican incumbent in Georgia, David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp after Johnny Isakson stepped down due to health reasons, lost their reelection bid in run-offs against now Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
So, with that said, what is next for the GOP? So far, the answer is for a total reconstruction of the party.
The Republican Party’s most significant issue with Donald Trump being the head of its party is that he gets many people to vote for him; on the other hand, he attracted more people to vote, but they voted against him in the presidential election. However, that doesn’t mean the GOP should throw him overboard because they still need those Trump voters, as with only the non-Trump Republicans, the GOP cannot win. What should be done?
The answer: find the perfect middle ground. GOP leaders need to find a way to relay their message to get Trump voters’ support, but in a tone that will not turn off more moderate Republicans like those in traditionally red states, like Arizona. Attacking what one could argue was the most popular senator of Arizona, the late John McCain, is not a way to get votes and is most likely the overarching reason why Donald Trump lost the state.
As Bryan Bender and Maggie Severns explain in Politico, “‘it appeared that about 100,000 voters in Arizona’s Maricopa County alone, which makes up about half the state’s population, voted for Biden and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kelly but chose all Republicans for a host of other state offices,’ said Garrett Archer, the former chief data analyst for the Arizona secretary of state.”
The citizens of Arizona do not like former President Trump, no matter their party. If the national GOP keeps nominating Trump-like figures, the GOP of Arizona will work tooth and nail to make sure they lose, with the help of John McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain.
However, Republicans did extraordinarily well when it came to state legislatures. Democrats did not flip any legislative chambers, and they even lost control of both chambers of the New Hampshire statehouse, which has been blue since 2019.
So, what does this mean? It means the national Republican Party should look at the candidates who won their state legislative seats and determine how they did win. With the massive amount of ticket-splitting that took place, one can easily infer that multiple state house candidates did not closely align themselves with former President Trump.
The GOP must also make sure it does not waste this victory by continuing a massive amount of Trumpism, as even though they will be drawing the congressional lines which will last for ten years, Donald Trump will not be there forever. It’s time for them to return to what they were before or face situations as they did in Arizona.
If you are a Republican and looking towards the party’s future, the simple and smartest solution would be to reorganize. Republicans need to find a way to keep the party together, so both the needs of moderates and Trump voters are met, but in a way that will not turn away either of them or alienate new voters. The GOP needs to get into this block of new voters, such as young people and minorities because, without them, the future of the Republican Party looks grim.
