The 2023 Elections: A Triumph of Pure Resolve for the GOP

T he Democratic Party’s brand is in the toilet. From managing the economy, to the preservation of national security and American’s constitutional rights, to whatever voters define as “the most important problem” facing the country, Republicans own the issues foremost on the public’s mind. Dissatisfaction with the unpopular Democratic president is so palpable that it’s not uncommon to encounter it in the streets and in casual conversation. The GOP should be well positioned to clean up at the ballot box. And yet, on Tuesday night, Republican candidates turned in yet another underwhelming performance.

But for true patriots, there is a bright side to the GOP’s losses: The off-year election results provide yet another demonstration of the Republican Party’s absolute commitment to The Fight, no matter the cost. Indeed, Republicans are prepared to lose, over and over and over, rather than rethink their current track. You have to admire this kind of resolve.

In deep-red Kentucky, incumbent Democratic governor Andy Beshear handily won reelection against his Republican opponent, Daniel Cameron. To his everlasting credit, Cameron refused to waver from his commitment to Donald Trump, despite the benefits he might have enjoyed as a result. In the ad that served as the candidate’s closing argument, Cameron leaned heavily into his Trump endorsement. The former president repaid the favor by affirming that Cameron was “not really ‘a [Mitch] McConnell guy’” — the sitting Senate minority leader Kentuckians have reelected every six years since 1984. Cameron performed worse than his fellow Republicans on the statewide ballot, some of whom went so far as to reject the notion that the 2020 election was rigged and promised to cross the aisle to work with the Democratic governor. But in their willingness to abandon The Fight, what have these squishy Republicans really won? Their hollow victories only set the stage for more “failure theater” from the RINO Right.

Democrats managed to mete out a defeat to Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, too, when the party recaptured control of Virginia’s lower legislative chamber while retaining control of the state senate. Rather than emphasize the fundamentals, Virginia Republicans pushed all their chips onto issues adjacent to the culture wars — “from schools and the ‘woke’ agenda related to ‘trans’ students and parental rights to ‘defund the police’ and rising crime,” Derek Hunter observed. But Republican voter enthusiasm couldn’t overcome Democratic motivation to register their dissatisfaction with “MAGA” Republicans and the fluid post-Roe status quo. Despite Youngkin’s “non-MAGA” brand, the GOP’s candidates in the Old Dominion state couldn’t escape the Republican Party’s image if they tried — which they didn’t. Their martyrdom only makes the cause they served stronger.

A similar situation unfolded in New Jersey, where Democrats recovered from their losses in 2021. Democrats added five new members to their majority in the state assembly and grew their majority in the state senate by one. That senate candidate, Rabbi Avi Schnall, may be a recent convert to Democratic politics, but he unseated an incumbent in one of New Jersey’s most Republican districts.

Here, too, Republicans leaned heavily into cultural issues like the state’s effort to restrict schools from alerting parents if their children experience symptoms associated with gender dysphoria. It wasn’t enough, but at least the Garden State GOP displayed some gumption. A handful of New Jersey Republican candidates did enjoy unforeseen successes at the municipal level in towns along commuter-rail lines leading into New York City by highlighting hyperlocal themes relating to quality of life. But if these Republicans know what time it is, that wasn’t apparent from their risk-averse and, therefore, shamefully successful campaigns.

In contrast with the vexingly inscrutable message voters are communicating to the GOP in these states, the results of an Ohio ballot measure on abortion present a clearer view of the electoral landscape. On Tuesday night, the Buckeye State became the seventh state since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to deal the pro-life movement a loss. While the 2022 and 2023 elections suggest voters evaluate pro-life candidates on a range of issues and pro-life reforms are not necessarily an obstacle to electoral victories, the GOP obviously needs to reject the thoughtful incrementalism of Nikki Haley’s approach and the moral clarity of the Ron DeSantis approach and go all in on the dog’s breakfast that is the Donald Trump approach — something that combines vague ambivalence with mild irritation over having to think about abortion at all. There are only so many fights you can pick, and choosing the right battles means subordinating nebulous pangs of morality to more important things like relitigating the 2020 election.

Sure, the GOP was heavily outspent in 2023. That discrepancy is likely to increase next year as GOP donors’ contributions are channeled into the pockets of Donald Trump’s lawyers. But fighting the weaponization of the Justice Department demands sacrifices from all of us. Yes, turnout and engagement were down in 2023, and Republicans used to do quite well in elections dominated by high-propensity voters. But the GOP’s new working-class coalition and the party’s focus on low-stakes cultural combat sacrifices that advantage for the greater good. The fact that we have precisely one data point in support of that proposition only compels us to keep testing it. And of course, Joe Biden’s moribund support in the polls suggests that almost anyone can beat him in 2024. That’s why Republicans should continue to take big risks when selecting candidates. After all, there’s no satisfaction in a sure thing.

When Donald Trump descended the golden escalator, Republicans held a 234-seat majority in the House of Representatives and a 54-seat majority in the Senate. The party controlled 68 of 99 state legislative chambers. Thirty-three governor’s mansions were occupied by Republicans, 25 of whom presided over total Republican control of every lever of state government. As this record suggests, the pre-Trump GOP had no stomach for The Fight. Trump shook the party out of its complacency. He’s responsible for what it is today. The 2023 election results showcase the Right’s determined refusal to compromise on the one core principle it has held since November 3, 2020, even at the expense of all the others. After all, winning isn’t everything.