Senator Rick Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, on Friday called the 2022 midterm elections a “complete disappointment.”
“Here’s what happened to us: Election Day, our voters didn’t show up, we didn’t get enough voters. It was a complete disappointment,” Scott said during an appearance on Fox News’s Hannity.
Host Sean Hannity asked, “Where did all this pie in the sky talk about a wave and a tsunami election come from? Because I never saw it.”
Scott, who predicted ahead of Election Day that the GOP would win at least 52 Senate seats, said polls were promising but GOP voter turnout lagged.
“I think we’ve got to reflect now, what didn’t happen?” Scott said. “I think we didn’t have enough of a positive message, we said everything about how bad the Biden agenda was — it’s bad, the Democrats are radical, but we have to have a plan of what we stand for.”
Though paths remain for Republicans to take control of both chambers of Congress, the party will not see the large majorities it had hoped for. The less-than-stellar showing for Republicans comes despite history being on their side; conventional wisdom says the president’s party typically loses seats in a midterm election.
Thirteen of the last 19 midterms saw losses in both chambers for the party in power, per Reuters. Of the other six elections, only the 2002 midterms saw gains in both the House and Senate for the president’s party, which was widely seen as a show of support for the Bush administration after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Control of the Senate hinges on the race in Nevada between Republican Adam Laxalt and Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and the race in Georgia between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. The race in Georgia is headed to a runoff next month after neither candidate secured 50 percent of the vote.
Now, several Senate Republicans have suggested the party should delay its leadership elections next week. Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) said Friday that the leadership vote “should be postponed.” Senator Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) and Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) both agreed. Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) similarly wrote on Twitter that it “makes no sense for Senate to have leadership elections before GA runoff.”
Scott said the party shouldn’t “attack” Republicans who go against the mainstream and that it should be willing to “have a conversation about these things.” His comments come amid reports that he may challenge longtime Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell in the leadership elections.