The leader of an influential House conservative caucus is charting a future for the GOP that deemphasizes President Trump but marries his populist agenda with traditional conservatism, a hybrid Republicanism he believes can win national elections.
“The Trump agenda was what was popular — not Trump the man,” Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, incoming chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “As it appears more and more likely that Trump will not be in the White House and we will begin the post-Trump era, our party has to begin a conversation of what we look like moving forward. No one is having that conversation. I want to lead it.”
The RSC focuses on writing legislation and, over the years, has been a springboard for prominent Republicans such as Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Banks assumes command of the group in January.
The 41-year-old congressman and military veteran views Trump’s loss to President-elect Joe Biden as a failure of personality, not policy, pointing to Republican gains in Congress as proof the commander in chief’s legislative portfolio resonates. Banks wants to keep what worked, pairing popular elements of Trump populism with a fresh slate of reforms rooted in pre-Trump conservative principles that address healthcare, deficit reduction, and other thorny political issues.
Banks wants to pitch this updated GOP agenda with a unifying tone. The substantial bloc of disaffected Republicans who voted for Biden but supported Republicans down-ballot are his target.
“No one in the conservative movement is having the conversation about how we bring Bush compassionate conservatives and marry them with Trump populists — the party of Reagan with the party of Trump,” Banks said. “How do we fold all that together into a winning party, a winning message, a winning agenda?”
For Republicans, the outcome of the Nov. 3 election was a mixed bag.
The party could gain more than 10 House seats by the time all votes are counted and is poised to hold the Senate majority, depending on two Jan. 5 runoff elections in Georgia. The Democrats failed to flip one state legislature, which will help the GOP heading into redistricting. Trump deserves much of the credit. He is popular with Republican voters, attracted more nonwhite voters to the party, and juiced turnout across the country.
House Republicans are grateful and are expressing their appreciation by supporting Trump’s refusal to concede to Biden.
“Almost all members of our party in our Republican conference, today, are very loyal to President Trump,” Banks said. “We rally around his agenda, his message. I don’t see that changing. I really believe the party is going to look a lot more like Trump for a generation than it’s going to look like George W. Bush … or Reagan.”
But the president was defeated by Biden.
He lost the once-reliably red states of Arizona and Georgia and again lost the national popular vote. The defection of Republican voters who backed the Democratic president-elect but voted GOP for Congress and in state and local races are the culprit. Banks wants them back in the presidential fold in 2024 without repelling the former Democrats and new voters who joined the GOP specifically to pull the lever for Trump.
The congressman is aiming to help Republicans assemble a majority coalition that gains the party unmistakable victories in the 2022 midterm elections and then the next presidential contest.
“I want the next two years to focus my chairmanship of the Republican Study Committee [on] having this conversation of where the party and where the conservative movement goes from here to rebuild the conservative movement so we can win elections moving forward,” Banks said.
But there is one potential problem for Banks with moving to a post-Trump party: The president may run again in 2024.
