Amid midterm disappointment, Trump grapples with political future
Former President Donald Trump takes the stage to speak at Mar-a-lago on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Andres Harnik/AP)
Donald Trump wanted to catapult himself into a third presidential campaign with a wave of Republican victories after the midterm elections. Instead, he emerges from a disappointing Tuesday election night facing questions about his political future and with a boost behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his main potential nemesis in the 2024 primary.
With key seats still up for grabs in Arizona and Nevada, and with Georgia headed for a Senate runoff, Trump entered Wednesday with few wins to tout and the possibility that they might soon be overshadowed by more losses.
His chosen candidates for open Senate seats in Ohio and North Carolina prevailed, as did incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin. But he lost a critical Senate race in Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz, whom he supported in the primary despite widespread concerns about his eligibility, was defeated by Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
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In Michigan, Trump’s candidate in the gubernatorial race failed to unseat Governor Gretchen Whitmer. And while Republicans still appear on track to capture a House majority, it is likely to be much smaller than initially thought.
“As powerful as Trump is in the Republican Party, we learned that he can’t anoint anyone the winner. Candidates who have the fundamentals are still needed,” said Bryan Lanza, a longtime Trump adviser.
Others were more forthright in their assessment of Tuesday’s known results.
Rep. Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican who won re-election and received Trump’s endorsement, appeared to cast the former president as a liability to other GOP candidates in a radio interview Wednesday.
“There are a lot of negative attitudes about Trump,” Nehls noted.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a current Trump adviser, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, admitted that Trump “is in a tough spot coming out tonight.”
“Two narratives will take hold over the next week and neither will be easy to dispel,” the adviser said.
Fully aware of his unprecedented turnout in the Republican primary earlier this year, this adviser and other Trump allies said they expect the former president to be blamed for powering failed candidates in some of the party’s biggest races, especially Oz, a daytime talk show host who had barely lived in Pennsylvania before launching his Senate campaign there.
Trump’s disappointment was palpable inside the gilded ballroom on his Mar-a-Lago estate, where he met with dozens of aides, allies and donors to view the results Tuesday night. When he returned to the party in the middle of the night after a private dinner, his mood had visibly changed.
“Interesting night,” he told reporters before taking the stage to make brief, lukewarm comments.
As the crowd thinned, Trump sat at a table in front of a television tuned to Fox News with just a handful of advisers. Meanwhile, several guests whose names appeared on a VIP list that a Trump adviser circulated to reporters were nowhere to be found, including some who apparently decided to skip the event, appearing as television guests throughout the night from studios. in other parts of the country.
The end result was the exact scenario Trump advisers hoped to avoid: an election in which his top recruits failed and his main Republican rival rose to new stardom.
