Republicans Lose Because They’re Fake Populists With No Real Policy Plans

Republicans won the popular vote in House races by at least 6 percent and have taken the House. But the midterm elections were, overall, a massive disappointment for conservatives, with Republicans losing key races and seats in the Senate.

Cue the Republican infighting. The establishment quickly blamed former President Donald Trump for the losses, and it seems to care little about the fact that delayed vote counting and massive Democratic turnout due to ballot harvesting now appear to be a fact of life in American elections. Trump did pick some terrible candidates, such as Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, who by many accounts ran an extremely subpar campaign. Trump’s picks, true to form, appear to be based on loyalty to Trump rather than substance. But establishment candidates performed poorly also, and explicitly anti-Trump Republicans did worst of all.

Meanwhile, some blamed abortion. But many Republicans who performed poorly were not pro-life, such as Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. Also, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott all recently passed pro-life bills and won their races (with DeSantis massively outperforming). Democrats ran on abortion in New York and California too and still lost key House races.

Republicans were also massively outspent, as corporate money flooded to the Democrats. Anti-establishment conservatives point out that Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spent $10 million on pro-abortion Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign to help her defeat a conservative challenger, and spent $20 million on a safe Republican Alabama seat to elect the establishment’s preferred candidate. Meanwhile, McConnell cut funds for anti-establishment candidates such as Blake Masters in Arizona (who might have voted against McConnell as Senate majority leader). Masters spent $7 million, and his Democratic opponent spent $73 million. This lopsided campaign spending dynamic existed across the country, including in the Georgia, New Hampshire, and Nevada Senate races.

Others blame the GOP’s populism. Didn’t populist darlings like Masters lose, and J.D. Vance have a tough time in Ohio? The narrative that Vance struggled in Ohio because voters didn’t like his message is a complete lie, but one that has been advanced by the Fox News panel on election night, The Wall Street Journal editorial types, and goofball Chris Cillizza. Vance won by 7 points, the same margin as Trump in 2020. If anything Vance was held back by GOP donors, and Vance in the last week bucked them by proposing broad, across-the-board tariffs to rebuild American industry.

Meanwhile, Masters was a good candidate but made videos about cultural issues without any accompanying policy proposals. Masters did, however, float privatizing Social Security (in Arizona, no less), and about half the Democrat money spent against him was on that issue.

Real Populism, Not Performative

The reason Republicans underperformed, and will keep underperforming until something changes, is that they have broadly rejected populism — which is what put Trump in the White House in 2016, not his personality. The populism on the campaign trail hit a brick wall in Washington. McConnell has

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