I appreciate this from @lauren_e_lepage. In the spirit of discussion:
The blue tsunami was powered by voters who may have supported Pres. Trump before, but recoiled because of the contempt with which he treated them.
They wanted lower prices. They got tariffs.
They wanted an end to foreign wars. They got Iran.
They more affordable health care. They got premium tax credits rolled back.
They wanted order at the border. They got ICE agents killing people.
They wanted a spotless Washington. They got corruption around every corner.
They wanted American leadership bringing peace and prosperity. They got a cozy relationship with a brutal dictator.
Other notes: "we lacked the resources" -- Musk's America PAC alone spent at least $2.3M. And a recent Axios piece suggested that Maine Rs were on track to outspend Ds in the senate race by ~$30M.
"I’m not sure what else we could have done" -- Disagree. @SenSusanCollins could have done far more public engagement. Town halls, open Q&A, tough media interviews. Many voters I spoke with simply did not hear her rationale for the votes she took apart from 5 second segments during a debate. While I disagree with her justifications, they *might* have been persuasive to some voters.
"own where we went wrong" and "do things differently" - Agree.
The blue tsunami was powered by voters who may have supported Pres. Trump before, but recoiled because of the contempt with which he treated them.
They wanted lower prices. They got tariffs.
They wanted an end to foreign wars. They got Iran.
They more affordable health care. They got premium tax credits rolled back.
They wanted order at the border. They got ICE agents killing people.
They wanted a spotless Washington. They got corruption around every corner.
They wanted American leadership bringing peace and prosperity. They got a cozy relationship with a brutal dictator.
Other notes: "we lacked the resources" -- Musk's America PAC alone spent at least $2.3M. And a recent Axios piece suggested that Maine Rs were on track to outspend Ds in the senate race by ~$30M.
"I’m not sure what else we could have done" -- Disagree. @SenSusanCollins could have done far more public engagement. Town halls, open Q&A, tough media interviews. Many voters I spoke with simply did not hear her rationale for the votes she took apart from 5 second segments during a debate. While I disagree with her justifications, they *might* have been persuasive to some voters.
"own where we went wrong" and "do things differently" - Agree.
🚨 LONG POST: ME Election ThoughtsView quoted post on X
I am going to be brutally honest with you. This is not Monday morning quarterbacking. These are observations that have frustrated me for months. We were staring at a freight train coming down the line and we ignored it.
Here are some harsh realities that we can’t run from:
➡️ Senate Republicans are in the super minority for the first time since 1984.
➡️ We suffered double digit losses in the House Caucus.
➡️ We lacked the resources to launch a disciplined and aggressive message to push back on the nationalization of our election, and failed to hold Democrats accountable.
➡️ The grassroots are pissed off, disenfranchised, and our volunteer base has been destroyed because of years of corporate politics.
This was a REALLY tough national climate. This is true, and Senator Collins got swept up in the headwinds. Steve Abbott recently said: I’m not sure what else we could have done. And he is right. We all owe her an enormous debt of gratitude for her service. In addition, many people don’t realize the amount that the Collins team does for the Republican Party here in Maine. They’re quiet, they don’t seek credit for it, but they have given enormous amounts of resources to the party. This loss is devastating for our party, but more importantly, for the people of Maine.
HOWEVER - and this is a BIG however - if we do not seriously examine our performance, and we simply say “big wave, too hard to overcome” we are both lying to ourselves and failing forward.
We made mistakes. THIS INCLUDES ME. I cannot be clearer about this: every organization, every campaign, every operative made mistakes. There are always bad decisions on campaigns, even when you win. Sometimes, they’re just not big enough to sway the election. Team LePage had a historic victory but that doesn’t mean we were perfect.
Another reality: if not for Collins and LePage on the ballot, and the enormous support system they brought into Maine, the losses down ballot would have been even more devastating.
The federal races brought in a lot of money that provided band-aids. If we are not honest about where we failed, we are not going to move forward. We don’t have a US Senate seat anymore. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO MORE WITH LESS.
As a party, moving forward, we would be best suited to do 4 things:
1. A painful post-mortem. Not finger pointing. But self-reflection. We all have to collectively own where we went wrong. If we pretend everything is okay, we will never get better. We cannot stick our heads in the sand and blame it on a wave. If we do that, WE WILL LOSE.
2. We must be willing to do things differently. What we’ve been doing, isn’t working. We’re struggling to catchup with the new age of campaigns. We need to check our own egos and ELEVATE as many voices as we can. We HAVE to build the bench, and stop putting our own self-interest ahead of the mission.
3. Echo chambers need to end. Nationally, for months, there were warning signs about this election being a bloodbath. I was screaming from the rooftops that it was going to be bad, and I was met with criticism for being negative.
Realism isn’t negativity. We have to make sound decisions based on reality. We somehow convinced ourselves Maine, a blue state, was going to buck the trend. We left incumbents without resources or support, we expanded a map into offense when our most important job was defense, and we IGNORED the data because “the democrats are to blame for cost of living.” No. That is not what voters believed. It wasn’t even remotely close.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY: we MUST WIN BACK THE GRASSROOTS. They’re not happy. Volunteerism is down. In most counties, except a couple, the same few people do all of the work. They feel frustrated, talked down to, and excluded.
WE CAN REBUILD. But we CANNOT move forward by saying “better luck next time.” We need to do the hard and uncomfortable work now.
