After a rocky start to the Biden administration, the Republican Party is optimistic about taking back both the House and Senate during the 2022 midterm elections.
Former President Donald Trump pledged to help in that effort, but it’s not just Democrats he wants to see defeated in 2022. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend, Trump not only went after the third highest-ranking House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., but he also named each GOP lawmaker who voted for his impeachment.
“A person that loves seeing our troops fighting, Liz Cheney, how about that?” Trump said. “The good news is in her state, she’s been censured and in her state, her poll numbers have dropped faster than any human being I’ve ever seen. So hopefully they’ll get rid of her with the next election, get rid of ’em all.”
Cheney believes the GOP should move forward without the former president even though he remains extremely popular with Republican voters and was named one of the most admired men in the world. “I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country,” she told reporters last week.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., however, credits Trump’s campaign support for the GOP’s 2020 success.
“This is the first time since 1994 no incumbent Republican lost,” he said. “We beat 15 Democrats and you know who the 15 Democrats lost to? Conservative women and conservative minorities. Each and every one of them.”
McCarthy believes Republican candidates can regain House control in 2022 and sees candidate recruitment as a key strategy.
“Do you want to retire Nancy Pelosi?” he said. “Do you want to end the socialism in this country? Win the House. Five seats This is the smallest majority the Democrats have had in 100 years.”
The former president still casts a big shadow as seen in the CPAC straw poll, where 95 percent of the attendees said they support seeing Trump’s policies carried on by the GOP. “He is the leader of the conservative movement, America first movement, the leader of the Republican Party,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said.
Polls show that numerous Biden policies are unpopular among many segments of voters, including increased funding for abortion companies like Planned Parenthood, energy, the new southern border crisis, ending sanctions against Iran, forcing high schools and colleges to biological males into women’s sports and more.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
