Republicans weigh election defeat but keep their distance from Trump
After a heavy defeat in the US midterm elections, the Republican Party is assessing what went wrong but is in no hurry to distance itself from President Donald Trump. House Republicans chose Jim Jordan as their new leader, signalling a firm course.
The US Republican Party has begun assessing what went wrong after its defeat in the midterm elections, in which all of Congress is contested. Democrats will take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in January, yet Republicans are so far in no rush to break with President Donald Trump. The question will shape the party's direction and the future of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement.
Voter discontent
Republican congressman Richard Hudson, who led the party's House campaign effort, said in an interview that voters expressed frustration over high fuel prices and the cost of living. In his view, the party failed to convince people that it cared about these problems.
Senator Josh Hawley believes the party lost voters' trust by not looking after various groups in society sufficiently, citing cuts to health care funding in rural areas. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert said the defeat affected the whole party and that Americans had shown the party had not governed properly during this term.
Discontent has also been fuelled by the leadership's earlier confidence that the majority would be kept. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in the final weeks of the campaign that the party would avoid the losses typical for a president's party in midterms, and after the results said voters had made the “wrong decision”. Democrats flipped more than 40 seats previously held by Republicans and are expected to hold their largest House majority since the start of Barack Obama's presidency.
Leadership choices and the Trump question
House Republicans picked Ohio congressman Jim Jordan as their next leader. He is a founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus and one of Trump's most prominent allies. In the Senate, John Thune will continue to lead the Republican caucus. Some senators, including Hawley, had urged postponing the leadership vote, but nobody challenged Thune and he was backed without a ballot.
Trump's trade policy and conduct in the war with Iran are cited among factors behind the loss. Even so, House Republicans blocked by a wide margin an initiative to begin impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Only Thomas Massie, who co-led the initiative with Democrats, voted against his party, saying Trump still controls the caucus. Thune declined to blame the president directly, saying the results were determined by “a combination of various factors”.
