Republican Sen.-elect J.D. Vance of Ohio claimed structural problems, not former President Donald Trump, were to blame for the GOP’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections in a Monday op-ed.
“Any effort to blame Trump—or McConnell for that matter—ignores a major structural advantage for Democrats: money,” Vance wrote in The American Conservative. “Money is how candidates fund the all-important advertising that reaches swing voters, and it’s how candidates fund turnout operations. And in every marquee national race, Republicans got crushed financially.”
Trump came under fire after some high-profile endorsements, like Republican candidates Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania and Senate endorsees Blake Masters and Paul Laxalt lost, while others face tight election races that have yet to be called in midterm elections where the Republican Party underperformed expectations of a nationwide “red wave.”
I’ve seen enough bad election analysis from people with no skin in the game. Here’s a candidate’s view of some problems with the midterms: https://t.co/cTTQsBVF0O
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) November 14, 2022
Vance pointed to ActBlue, a fundraising outlet for Democrats founded in 2004. The site raised $1.88 billion in the 2022 election cycle, while the GOP equivalent, WinRed, raised $1.04 billion, according to OpenSecrets.org.
“In competitive states, every non-incumbent candidate was swamped with cash by national Democrats. This is true for Trump-aligned candidates (like me), anti-Trump candidates (like Joe O’Dea in Colorado), and those who straddled both camps,” Vance wrote. “The [H]ouse [of Representatives] tells a similar story. Every person blaming Donald Trump, or bad candidates endorsed by Trump, ought to show a single national marquee race where a non-incumbent beat a well-funded opponent.”
Vance called on Republicans to engage in reforming election processes in the short-term while building up a turnout machine for the long-term, but noted the latter would be difficult “without organized labor and amid declining church attendance.” He also called for Trump’s team to “use their incredible small dollar fundraising machine” for candidates he endorsed.
Vance, Trump and WinRed did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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