The board said in an op-ed published Wednesday that Trump-style Republican candidates have lost races that were “clearly” winnable, but the losses may be what the GOP needs to see before the 2024 presidential election. “What will the Democrats do when Donald Trump is not around to lose the election? We have to ask why on Tuesday Democrats again succeeded in making the former President a central issue of the campaign, and Mr. Trump helped them do it,” the board said. Republicans were hoping for a red wave to regain control of both houses of Congress, but Democrats were outpolling in many races. The GOP will likely win a narrow House majority, while which party will control the Senate is uncertain. The board also criticized Trump for attacking fellow Republicans at a midterm rally in an op-ed published last weekend. The board showed several Senate races where Trump-backed candidates underperformed. Don Bolduc lost the New Hampshire Senate race to incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) by about 8 points, according to the latest estimates, but Gov. Chris Sununu (R), a Trump critic, won re-election with 16 points. The board said businessman David McCormick would be a better candidate to take on Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) in the state Senate race. But McCormick would not entertain Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, so Trump endorsed a weaker candidate in Mehmet Oz, who lost to Fetterman, the council said. The board said Trump could have stayed mostly quiet in the final weeks of the election cycle other than spending money on Republican candidates, but he did the opposite and “played into the hands of Democrats.” He said Trump’s rally with Oz last week could have hurt the Senate candidate with suburban voters who voted against Trump in 2020. The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Washington deadlocked as Arizona and Nevada results trickle in Here are the counties to watch as Lake and Hobbs head down to call Arizona “Since his improbable victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has had a perfect electoral losing record,” the council said. He said Republicans suffered heavy losses in the 2018 midterms, then Trump lost re-election in 2020, then sabotaged two key Senate runoffs in Georgia in 2021 and failed in the 2022 midterms. He said he had successes as president, but sent the party into one “political fiasco” after another. Trump is expected to announce a third bid for the presidency next week and has been seen as the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
