Republicans reckon with midterm election fallout

With election results still rolling in, a narrow Republican majority in the House was still likely, but the party’s path to capturing the Senate had narrowed. For Republican leaders who had 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 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,” Paul Cordes, chief of staff for the Michigan Republican Party, wrote in a memo 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.

Jason Miller, who is helping to organize Trump’s expected announcement next week that he will again seek the presidency, went on Steve Bannon’s internet radio show Friday and issued a veiled threat toward Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the man who wants to be House speaker and whom Trump has called “my Kevin.” If McCarthy wants the gavel, Miller said, “he must be much more declarative that he supports President Trump” in 2024.

Raising the heat, a potential rival for speaker, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., chair of the House Republican Conference, leaped to endorse 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 Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as the GOP leader.