Conservatives Call for GOP to Move on from ‘Politically Toxic’ Trump After Red Wave Fails to Materialize
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Many conservatives called for the Republican Party to move on from former President Donald Trump Tuesday evening after it became apparent the party was underperforming.
In an election year in which the country was experiencing record levels of inflation, high gas prices, and soaring crime, the GOP managed to lose winnable races.
In New Hampshire, for example, incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) was viewed as vulnerable. She won re-election against Trump-backed challenger Don Bolduc by double digits. Likewise, Herschel Walker was in a too-close-to-call race in Georgia while Mehmet Oz was in the same situation in Pennsylvania against an arguably weak candidate in Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
Neither race has been called, but both candidates and others notched the endorsement of Trump. Some of the former president’s hand-picked candidates have been easy targets after they spent their primaries pushing his obsessive claims the 2020 election was rigged against him.
They had to pivot back in their general election races in an attempt to appeal to independent voters, and that likely set some of them back.
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) mopped the floor with his Democratic opponent Charlie Crist. In Florida, a rising red tide lifted all boats. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) cruised to reelection and perennial GOP House candidate Anna Paulina Luna finally got over the hump amid Florida’s bloodbath for Democrats.
There is still a (small) chance the party ekes out control of one or both chambers of Congress, but after a lackluster evening, many conservatives on Twitter expressed a desire to move on from Trump:
https://twitter.com/Welch_4Illinois/status/1590143974337310720?s=20&t=v2f1bRLnrgPiR3-zlkStzw
