Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel identified a significant reason why the GOP underperformed during the Nov. 8 midterms.
“Ticket-splitting was everywhere. We won eight races statewide in Georgia, but then [Sen. Raphael] Warnock wins the runoff. [Sen.] Ron Johnson wins in Wisconsin, but [Gov. Tony] Evers holds the governorship,” McDaniel told WABC 77 on Sunday, describing the phenomenon as “massive” in scope. “It’s not a one size fits all.”
McDaniel did not address how Republicans could combat ticket-splitting in their favor.
Split-ticket voting is when a voter casts ballots for candidates of different political parties for different offices. That’s opposed to straight-ticket voting, where a voter selects candidates from the same political party.
Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, easily won reelection over Democrat Stacey Abrams, while GOP candidate Herschel Walker lost to Warnock by about 3 percentage points during last week’s runoff. That win cemented the Democrats’ majority in the Senate.
In Wisconsin, Johnson defeated Democrat Mandela Barnes while Gov. Evers, a Democrat, was reelected over Republican construction executive Tim Michels.
Also in the interview, McDaniel asserted that Republican infighting was a reason why some voters split tickets.
“We can’t hate each other so much that we forget what the Democrats are doing to this country,” McDaniel said. “We can’t be so mad at each other that we say, ‘I’m not going to vote for this Republican because they like this candidate, or they’re a RINO or establishment or MAGA.”
RINO is an acronym for “Republican in name only,” whereas MAGA refers to “Make America Great Again,” former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
“The RNC, we don’t pick the candidates; the voters do,” she added. “We don’t do the messaging; that’s up to the campaigns.”
“We have got to come together, because if you look at many of these elections right now, the Republican voters were difference makers,” McDaniel said, adding, “Unity is going to be the word of the day if we’re going to win in 2023 and 2024.”
Meanwhile, McDaniel, who is seeking a reelection bid to head the RNC, indicated that the GOP cannot ignore abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. Democrats relied heavily on abortion-related messaging during the election cycle.
“We’ve got to get conversant on that. It was probably a bigger factor than a lot of people thought. We can’t just do an ostrich method and pretend that it doesn’t exist when Democrats are spending $30 million on that message,” McDaniel said, without elaborating on how the Republicans can perform better. “In Pennsylvania and Michigan, that was a huge issue.”
In my opinion the RNC is totally useless. They no longer get a dime from me!
The lack of support for our chosen President says it all!
She is right about one thing.
We Conservatives need to re-think those hard-core “no abortions” policies.
THAT is the single arrow in our Achilles’ heel!
THAT is the single issue that cost us both of the last elections.
Myself, and MANY conservatives strongly disagree with that position.
Like it or not, we MUST back down on that stance if we hope to win next time.
Infighting…yes we eat our own. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that. Your Uncle is a perfect example of what has happened to the GOP. I am extremely unhappy with the GOP; I will never send money to you again; you’re all talk and no action and Mitch McConnell for one has to go NOW.
Let’s not leave out McConnell, who pulled money from some of the best conservative candidates in favor of Macowsky and other RINOS. And the reason why is because he has direct business with China through his wife and knows conservatives would fight to end these types of relationships which is a direct conflict of interest.
We lost the Midterm elections because of the RINO’s that did and continue to do the left’s bidding nothing will change until all of them are gone from the top to the bottom. We need more republicans that put America and its people first not themselves and betray this country with the dems.