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GOP to conduct post-election audit after disappointing midterms
The Republican National Committee last commissioned a post-election audit a decade ago. That report called on the party to adopt a more inclusive and welcoming tone.
www.nbcnews.com
NEW YORK — A decade after its last election autopsy, the Republican National Committee is moving forward with a new post-election audit designed to examine the GOP’s underwhelming performance in the recent midterms and the party’s broader struggles in the years since former President Donald Trump took power.
The report, which will likely take several months to complete, is expected to explore internal concerns about candidate quality, the lack of a clear governing agenda and the party’s unwillingness to embrace early voting, among other issues. There is some disagreement about the exact focus and scope of the upcoming review, but committee members involved in the planning suggest it will not shy away from difficult topics — including Trump’s intense focus on conspiracy theories.
“We need to figure out what worked and what didn’t work in the ’22 cycle to make sure we put ourselves in the best position to win in ’24. I think there’s a lot to learn from,” said RNC committeeman Henry Barbour, of Mississippi, whom RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel tapped to co-chair the review.
If it feels as though history is repeating itself, that’s because it is.
In 2012, the Republicans had everything going for them heading into the election — just as they did in 2022 — until the candidates who won primaries started talking, and it all went south.
Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock referred to a woman getting pregnant during a rape as something “God intended.” Mourdock lost the election to Joe Donnelly, a red-to-blue pickup for the Democrats. In Missouri, Republican candidate Todd Akin claimed that it’s very rare for women who are the victims of “legitimate rape” to become pregnant. Claire McCaskill, the Democratic incumbent senator, sailed to a second term. In Ohio, the tea party celebrated its primary victory with Republican candidate Josh Mandel, only to watch him fall to Democrat Sherrod Brown.
It doesn’t take much to figure out what went wrong for Republicans in 2012: They nominated far-right candidates who alienated themselves from the largest constituency of voters in America — women — and were unable to make inroads with minorities and younger voters.
This time, the review will be spearheaded by a “Republican Party Advisory Council” featuring Kellyanne “alternative facts” Conway and failed Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters. The inclusion of such propagandists and election deniers immediately undermines the integrity and usefulness of such a project.
If the Republican Party wants to waste time, energy and resources to assemble a report full of lies, distortions and flat-out bad political advice, have at it. Keep learning the wrong lessons from failure and keep losing winnable elections.
At this point, failure after defeat is a pattern. All evidence points to the Republicans having no interest in breaking the cycle. In the aftermath of their midterm underperformance, they have declared their intention to launch a series of witch hunts targeting Biden’s family and allies, returned to using the border as a scare tactic and are now busy trying to navigate a response to Donald Trump having dinner with a white nationalist and an antisemite. And of course, fighting among themselves over who will lead them in the House.