Republicans blame Trump for Senate loss
Party heavyweights back Ron Desantis over former president as ‘red wave’ fails to appear at midterms
Senior Republicans have blamed Donald Trump for their loss in the US Senate race, placing Ron Desantis in pole position for the party’s presidential nomination. The Democrats’ victory in Nevada, announced early yesterday, means the party will retain control of the Senate as the race for the control of the House of Representatives narrows by the day. Supporters rounded on the former president days ahead of his anticipated announcement that he will run for the White House in 2024.
SENIOR Republicans have blamed Donald Trump for losing the US Senate race, placing Ron Desantis in pole position for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
The Democrats’ victory in Nevada, announced early yesterday, means the party will retain control of the Senate as the race for the control of the House of Representatives narrows by the day.
Supporters rounded on the former president days ahead of his anticipated announcement that he will run for the White House in 2024.
Mike Pence, the former vice-president, launched an angry attack on Mr Trump over his behaviour on January 6, describing his conduct as reckless.
Mr Pence told ABC News he was “angered” by Mr Trump’s tweet as the insurrection unfolded, accusing him of lacking the courage to refuse to certify Mr Biden’s election victory.
“I mean, the president’s words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem,” he said.
One-time Trump ally Chris Christie blamed Mr Trump for the Republican “Red wave” failing to materialise.
“How about this? When Donald Trump won in 2016, he said we were going to get so tired of winning we would ask him to stop winning so much,” the former New Jersey governor said. “In 2018, we lose the House. In 2020, we lose the Senate and the White House. In 2021, we lose two winnable seats in Georgia.
“And in 2022, we vastly under-perform historic norms given inflation and gas prices and crime and a president at 40 per cent.”
Josh Hawley, a Missouri senator who was one of Mr Trump’s strongest supporters in the Senate, on Twitter called for the party to “build something new”.
Larry Hogan, the outgoing Republican governor of Maryland and a Trump critic, told CNN’S State of the Union: “It’s basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race and it’s like, three strikes and you’re out.”
The extent of Mr Trump’s fall from grace was evidenced in races where voters turned against “election deniers” endorsed by the former president.
In Washington State this weekend, Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez flipped a Republican-held seat being contested by Joe Kent, a Trump-supporting candidate.
Mr Desantis, the governor of Florida, emerged as one of the big winners. David Gergen, who served four presidents in the White House, told Telegraph: “I think Desantis is rapidly rising as an alternative to Trump. He had an almost perfect night.”
There was mounting evidence over the weekend that Republican powerbrokers are moving into the Desantis camp. A Yougov poll showed 41 per cent of Republican voters want Mr Desantis to be the party’s nominee, 2 per cent more than Mr Trump.
The former president blamed the poor midterms on the decision of Mitch Mcconnell, the Republican Senate leader, to pull spending from competitive candidates.