Republicans reckon with US midterm election fallout: Was it Trump?

WASHINGTON – The Republican Party, staring at the worst midterm performance by a party out of power in two decades, traded recriminations on Friday over whether the ultimate cause was poor candidates, an overheated message or the electoral anchor that appeared to be dragging the party down, former president Donald Trump.

With election results still rolling in, a narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives was still likely. But the party’s path to capturing the Senate has narrowed.

For Republican leaders who predicted a red wave that would broadly rebuke President Joe Biden,

the disappointing showing was undeniable.

Democratic incumbents have so far won nearly all of their races, while Republicans have racked up surprising losses from Maine to Washington, with candidates endorsed by Mr Trump losing the pivotal Senate contest in Pennsylvania and key House and statewide races in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and elsewhere.

“As a party, we found ourselves consistently navigating the power struggle between Trump and anti-Trump factions of the party, mostly within the donor class,” Mr Paul Cordes, chief of staff for the Michigan Republican Party, wrote in a memo on Thursday.

He added: “That power struggle ended with too many people on the sidelines and hurt Republicans in key races. At the end of the day, high-quality, substantive candidates and well-funded campaigns are still critical to winning elections. We struggled in both regards to the detriment of Michiganders across the state.”

The first substantive battle for the party broke out over the shape of leadership in the next Congress.

Mr Jason Miller, who is helping to organise Mr Trump’s expected announcement next week that he will again seek the presidency, went on Mr Steve Bannon’s Internet radio show on Friday and issued a veiled threat toward Representative Kevin McCarthy, the man who wants to be House speaker and whom Mr Trump has called “my Kevin”.

If Mr McCarthy wants the gavel, Mr Miller said, “he must be much more declarative that he supports President Trump” in 2024.

Raising the heat, a potential rival for speaker, Representative Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, leaped to endorse Mr Trump for the 2024 nomination, writing, “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America.”

Even in the Senate, where control hangs in the balance, three Republicans circulated a letter asking for a delay in leadership elections, amid calls from Trump to depose Senator Mitch McConnell, the party’s leader. NYTIMES