Of the many lessons from Tuesday’s election results, one is this: The GOP can do well without former President Donald Trump. He may have propelled the party to victory in 2016, but last year was a disaster. More and more, it appears as if his 2016 victory was a one-off. Republicans should look at it that way.
It is seemingly impossible to keep Trump out of the spotlight. Both Democrats and Republicans love to focus on him even when he’s not on the ballot. Democrats are eager to tether him to every GOP candidate to ruin their chances. Leading Republicans largely believe the opposite and are convinced that connections to Trump will mean victory. Unsurprisingly, Trump himself took some of the credit for Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia. Embarrassingly, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel gushed about Trump helping Republicans as a whole.
The Democratic Party will continue to use the 45th president as an electoral weapon to harm Republicans. But the GOP should move past all that, once and for all.
Placing party hopes on personality is a weak foundation. Not only does it lack substance, but eventually, that personality will disappoint. If 2016 allowed Trump to present himself as a refreshing alternative to Hillary Clinton, 2020 gave Joe Biden an opening to be the less offensive option. After four years of exhaustion, voters wanted something different. It’s not that Biden is better — it’s that he isn’t Trump. And for some voters, that was more than good enough.
If the Republican Party nominates Trump in 2024, it should expect to lose. Winning once and then losing dramatically, and losing a majority in Congress, should spur the GOP to close the “Trump as nominee” chapter. There may be no way to keep him off the stage entirely, but he should be relegated to the figurative background.
In the immediate post-Trump era, it must be tempting to make every issue or election about Trump. This may seem smart from a certain perspective within both major parties, but it is not. Based on Tuesday’s results, it is part of the lesson that Democrats are incapable or unwilling to learn. While Democrats flail from multiple defeats, Republicans should blaze a new trail and move beyond Trump-centered mania.
There is no placing Trump on a ballot if he is not running. No matter the stunts pulled or references to Jan. 6, it just doesn’t work. When the options are to select an ordinary, non-Trump GOP candidate or cling to progressive policies, your average center or center-right voter is likely to pick the former. Trump may have made some voters tune in during 2016. But in 2021 and beyond, droning on about Trump, whether for or against, can easily make voters tune out.
Add the Democratic Party’s superiority complex, which only pushes voters away. Van Jones, a leftist, observed that while appearing on CNN on election night: “Democrats are coming across in ways that we don’t recognize that are annoying and offensive and seem out of touch.”
Trump remains the elephant in the room. He has influenced U.S. politics to such a degree that talking about him seems like a requirement. But it’s not. Democrats don’t know or don’t care, so they will try to attach him to everything GOP again and again. Republicans should take Tuesday’s hint and work it into a winning strategy for 2022 and 2024.
The GOP candidates who won on Tuesday are responsible for their own success. A Republican Party that steers away from one man and instead focuses on policy and pushing back against progressivism is one that can actually win.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
