The effort by some conservatives to shove former President Donald Trump off of his unofficial perch as the leader of the Republican Party appears to possibly be underway.
As it appears Democrats may have beat decades of history by potentially keeping control of the Senate without losing a seat and seeming to avoid massive losses in the House, Republicans are directing their anger toward the 45th president.
And on Thursday morning, The New York Post’s cover featured an opinion article critical of Trump.
In large text, it read, “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?”
And in all capitalized letters it added, “Trumpty Dumpty.”
Today's cover: Here’s how Donald Trump sabotaged the Republican midterms https://t.co/YUtDosSGfp pic.twitter.com/vpI94nKuBh
— New York Post (@nypost) November 10, 2022
The cover comes as it appears Republicans are still poised to take control of the House, but they will probably have a smaller majority than they expected.
However, which party will control the Senate is unclear as Georgia is headed to a run-off on Dec. 6, and Arizona and Nevada are still counting votes but remain too close to call.
Those results came as the polls appeared to show voters were prepared to punish President Joe Biden and the Democrats for high inflation, high gas prices, and concerns about the economy and crime.
In that environment, history would generally suggest Republicans would have a fairly good night in races for the House and a good shot at picking up the one Senate seat they needed to flip the chamber.
It appears Democrats managed to use the debate over abortion to their advantage to help boost their candidates. But it also seems Trump was a drag on Republicans.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) all won their reelection bids on Tuesday despite signing bills over the past year that restricted abortion.
While DeWine won by 25 points, J.D. Vance (R) — who was seen as much closer to Trump — won the state’s Senate election by roughly six points.
Meanwhile, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed an abortion bill in 2019 and fended off a Trump-backed primary challenger. On Tuesday, he won his reelection bid by more than seven points. However, Trump-picked Herschel Walker is headed for a run-off with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) in a race that could determine which party controls the Senate as neither man received more than 50% of the vote.
Meanwhile, Trump-backed Republican Senate hopeful Don Bolduc lost to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.). At the same time, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) — who is not too close to the former president — won his reelection by nearly 16 points. And Trump’s picks for governor and Senate in Pennsylvania both lost.
Additionally, Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake (R), an unapologetic supporter of the former president, is trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs by roughly 13,000 votes with 70% of the votes counted.
So yes, abortion seems to be an issue that helped energize Democrats in the midterms.
But Republicans are also going to have to decide if they still want to risk letting Trump act as a king-maker and cost their party in the elections, or if it is time to move on.