Republicans have begun trying to pick up the pieces from Tuesday’s midterms, with top GOP voices pitching themselves for leadership roles and offering theories on why the party lost.House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on a call with his staff that he won’t run for minority leader next year, a Steve Scalise announced he plans to run for Republican leader
He told his colleagues: “We will need to be honest with ourselves about what happened.”House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan also threw his hat in the ring, calling it a “staggering day for our Conference.” He said he’s “battle-tested” after brawling with Democrats on investigations.Others offered diagnoses on what went wrong. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose state shifted hard toward Democrats, called the results an “ass-kicking” and a “Watergate-level repudiation.”On his podcast, Cruz argued his party didn’t address a “real economic disconnect” and that many GOP politicians “seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care” about the cost of living.In what could be a looming intraparty debate, Vice President JD Vance said the “reason we lost is the war.” He said many Trump 2024 voters flipped to Democrats in order to end the Iran war, address cost-of-living issues, “Put America First” and change the U.S.-Israel relationship.The likely presidential contender wrote that “everyone knows why we lost.
And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”(The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., reacted to Vance’s post with “šÆšÆšÆ.”)Former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told CBS News’ “The Takeout with Major Garrett” that Tuesday’s results were a “red rebellion” that she linked to people’s frustrations with the economy.
She said the GOP needs to do some “soul-searching.””You don’t win Texas, you don’t win Kansas, you don’t win South Carolina without Republican voters actually crossing over and voting for the Democrats,” she said.
