As results from the 2022 U.S. midterm elections continue to come in, director of the Republicans for Accountability Project Gunner Ramer discusses the key issues that brought voters to the polls, the quality of Republican candidates on the ballot, and why it seems a 'Red Wave' did not materialize. 

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How Republicans Performed in the 2022 Midterm Elections

as election results continue to come in. We have Gunnar Raymer, director of the republicans for accountability project joining us now to help break down some of the results that we're seeing so far. So thank you so much for being here before we jump into specifics overall, how is the Republican Party feeling this morning? I think that republican, the republican party and Republican party leadership is incredibly disappointed with what happened last night. And I will just say that it speaks to it's something that we've seen and focus groups a lot and we've seen sort of in in the polling too, is that candidate quality matters And the republicans decided throughout the primary season to nominate a bunch of extreme far right election nihilism candidates. And it seems that swing voters and a lot of these races rejected these kinds of republicans last night. Well, it's still too soon to say which party will control Congress, but so far is this the red wave that republicans were hoping for in this election? No, I don't think so. If you look at these key Senate races, Mark Kelly is doing very well in Arizona right now and John Fetterman one in Pennsylvania. It remains to be seen what happens in Wisconsin a few other states. But no, I don't think this is the red wave that Republicans were expecting and I think it should be really disappointing. And I I think it is one thing to win a primary these days, but it's another to win a general election. These trump like election nihilism candidates are not palatable to swing voters. And I think that it speaks to what we saw last night. Well, republicans did win by big margins in florida last night. So how has the party successfully won over latino voters in that state and nationwide for that matter? Yeah. Republicans have done a very good job making inroads in florida florida. Governor Ron DeSantis did very well. Senator marco rubio did very well. But that is a regional sort of race. And I think that if you look across the board, even in the Rio grande valley, in texas and we're still waiting to see what happens in Nevada with the hispanic vote. But uh, there's one thing happened in florida last night, but across the country, republicans did not perform as well as expected well in pennsylvania and Georgia Republican candidates. Dr Oz and herschel walker are both public figures without political experience. Are these the type of candidates that we can see in the future for the Republican Party? It may be, and it sort of depends right now, listen, the party has been taken over by donald trump. His handpicked candidates easily made their way through the republican primaries, but can Republican uh, you know, these disaffected republicans, democrats, independents rejected dr rosen pennsylvania, herschel walker and Raphael Warnock looks like it's going to a runoff. So again, these may be the future candidates and Republican for the Republican party, but they're not palatable to the swing voters as we saw last night. Well, you just mentioned former President Donald trump. You know, he campaigned heavily as you mentioned, endorsed quite a few candidates. Do you think that his overall presence helped Republican performance? No, I don't think so. I think what we saw last night is the swing voters who decided the election for Joe Biden in 2020. Right, these disaffected Republicans who maybe they voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but they decided not to vote for Donald Trump in 2020. They either voted for Joe Biden at the top of the ticket blank or they went third party. These voters decided the election for Joe Biden and it seems that this midterm, even though the Fundamentals are very bad for Democrats, their voters concerned with crime, inflation, they still chose to reject these kinds of Republicans that Donald Trump propped up throughout the primary season. Well, speaking of that, it's been widely speculated that Trump will announce his 2024 campaign early next week. So do you think he'll have an easy path to the nomination or did you anticipate a tough primary season? You know what's interesting, if you ask me this question at this time yesterday, I would have said that Donald Trump is the front runner in a 2020 for presidential run in a GOP primary and I think he still is the front runner. But I do have to say, I think that some Republican voters will start to look at Donald Trump and look at the candidates that he propped up and see that how poorly they performed. And I think, you know, voters are gonna start to ask the question is I may like Donald Trump, I think Donald Trump should be the kingmaker in the Republican Party, but is he electable in November of 2024? That's the big question. Well, we also have to mention that polls before elections show Republicans were very motivated this cycle. So what issues do you think brought those voters to the polls? The one interesting thing that happened is when the Dobbs decision came out and roe v wade was overturned is that, you know, there had for a long time been a diminished or there had been an enthusiasm gap between republicans and democrats. Republicans were very excited to vote and democrats weren't. But once the Dobbs decision came out it diminished the enthusiasm gap and democrats became more exa decided to vote. We saw that in a host of special elections. But I also think that last night we saw that there was not as much of an enthusiasm gap as we would have thought six or 12 months ago. And I think that again, voters were very concerned. We saw this in the focus groups all time with crime inflation, but it didn't bring every single disaffected republican home. And I think that they were looking at the candid quality of some of these uh, you know, wacko crazy republicans like Doug Mascherano and pennsylvania decided, hey, listen, I may be looking around for a Republican to vote for, but I don't like the kinds of republicans that I actually see have been nominated. Alright. All some good points there. Alright. Thanks to gonna roemer for from republicans for political accountability.