A Republican strategist from Pennsylvania said: “We lost the governor’s mansion and a Senate seat. Republicans in Pennsylvania are going to be very angry [with Mr Trump].” Meanwhile, a Republican source told Fox News: “If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now. We have a Trump problem.” Others, including some who previously worked for Mr. Trump, said it was time for the party to move on because he was too toxic. Alyssa Farah Griffin, former director of strategic communications in Trump’s White House, said: “This is a time when the Republican Party has to ask itself, are they going to continue to nominate poor quality candidates to appease Donald Trump? “If you want the Republican party to thrive, we have to finally speak up and say this man is a loser. He lost 2020. He’s losing us seats that we can win this time. It’s time to look at what the future might look like.” Other Republican officials suggested there should be a “back” and that Mr Trump should now be in the “rear-view mirror”. Across the country it appeared that the Republican share of the vote underperformed the overall average in races where the candidate had been endorsed by Mr. Trump. This was seen as evidence that Mr Trump’s nominees, and the former president himself, had underplayed the party’s performance. Before the results came in, Trump had rejected any suggestion that he should be blamed for poor performance by candidates he had endorsed.
