The Republican National Committee (RNC) is going to examine what role former president Donald Trump played in the party’s poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections. The investigation into its own losses comes as part of its audit of the GOP’s performance.
Part of that will be looking into what Trump did wrong in order to secure the party’s underwhelming election results in November.
“Looking at President Trump, what has he gotten right? And what has he gotten wrong? And how do we learn from that to win elections going forward?” Henry Barbour, an RNC committeeman from Mississippi who was tasked in November with co-authoring the RNC’s post-election review, said.
Trump is not the only issue that will be examined. Barbour said his examination seeks to “get into the weeds” on everything from Trump to turnout to ticket-splitting.
Barbour hopes the analysis will provide answers to why the Republicans lost a number of critical races during a cycle when it was expected to see big returns. The GOP thought there would be a big Red Wave this midterm election. But that turned into more of a drizzle, with the Republicans failing to cinch the Senate and only barely taking the House of Representatives.
The GOP audit will also offer recommendations about the best path forward.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced the review in late November, selecting Barbour to perform the audit.
Barbour has experience in this field. He also co-authored the so-called autopsy that followed Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential defeat in 2012. It called on Republicans to soften their stance on immigration and adopt a more inclusive posture broadly.
Those suggestions were cast aside when Trump ran in 2016.
Barbour said it’s important for the Republican Party to take lessons from the post-2012 autopsy effort and apply them to the ongoing review.
Barbour is the nephew of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump attorney and RNC committeewoman from California.
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