How Conservatives can overcome a lackluster Republican establishment
In 2022, national Republican Party leadership was blamed for squashing the “red wave” that was supposed to overtake the left.
In 2022, national Republican Party leadership was blamed for squashing the “red wave” that was supposed to overtake the left. People like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican Party chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel put our limited resources into protecting incumbents like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in safe Republican seats instead of putting resources into general election battlegrounds like Arizona, where radical left incumbent Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was up against pro-Trump populist Blake Masters for the Senate seat. Masters was outspent six-to-one and lost by just under 5%. This begs the question, what can we do about federal party incompetence on the state level?
To keep it short, only a little. Where the “McLeadership” in the GOP decide to put money is their decision, not the decision of the voters or local leaders. You can advocate for new GOP committee members, but one member on a 168-member board won’t have the most significant impact. We need to use party resources on the state level better. Let me explain.
In Ohio, we had two down-to-the-wire Congressional races, with Ohio’s 1st District and Ohio’s 13th District going blue by five percentage points. The Ohio Republican Party offered $0 to these campaigns but sent out mailers for every Republican nominee for State House, even those without an opponent on the ballot. The lackluster use of our resources is why we lose. The federal Democratic Party supported every nominee. The state Democratic Party endorsed every nominee. You can get involved in your state party, races for State Central Committee are hardly contested, and you have the power of the purse statewide. They can nominate people to the 168-member Republican committee. Not only that, you should stop donating to the joke of a party we have.
When you donate to your Republican Party, you assume they will put the money in the seeded races. That isn’t the case anymore. The good ol’ boys club will put money to help their personal friends and confidants, not to take back the country and support candidates that need financial support. If we want to win, we need to put our money where our mouth is, and the party won’t do that.
Donate to candidates in tight races. With the number of polls and resources to see polling, it’s easy to see which races are close and which aren’t. A big argument for electing Republicans to the House in 2022 was to hold the power of the purse and defund Biden’s radical policies; we can defund outlandish party leadership by putting small-dollar donors behind candidates that need resources.
In short-, the party leadership will always put money behind friends, whether that’s Murkowski in a primary or Sen. Tim Scott (R-S. Carolina), who ended up winning by 24%, but not before getting almost $5 Million in PAC dollars. Small-dollar donors should put their money behind candidates needing it and stop writing checks to the RNC Inc.
GOP Josh is a political activist and commentator based in central Ohio. He hosts a tri-weekly podcast, The Conservative Crusader, and is an executive at the online Red Future Radio network. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.