Author: Tristin Kilgore

Just a few days ago, the Nation experienced yet another election scene that has become increasingly common. Across the board from Kentucky to right here in our very own Commonwealth, in every branch and level of government, Republicans lost. Our judicial candidates lost, our governor candidates lost, our referendums lost, and even our school board candidates lost. This is not something unique to this off year election. 

Since 2016, in every special election, midterm, and off year election, Republicans have completely underperformed and humiliated themselves even when the polls and electoral environment were favorable to them. If we, who are dedicated to restoring the American Nation and instituting proper governance, plan to achieve our aims, we must be able to diagnose the failures of our party and bring about the conditions for us to win.

In order to determine how we are going to reform the GOP and its strategy, we must start with these two questions. How is it that the GOP could lose in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and now in 2023, after such a dominant performance in 2016 and even in 2020? What is it that made 2016 so special and so successful? 

The Republican Presidential primary election in 2016 was crowded and contentious. There were ten candidates in the first debate, many of whom had attracted media attention and some notable support from the electorate. However there was only one man, who was able to overcome the media, the Republican and Democrat establishment, and the special interests to capture the imagination of the American people and propel himself into the White House. Donald Trump created a movement that was able to outperform the polls and all expectations to bring a victory to the GOP and the American people as a whole. It was the unprecedented grasp that the future President had on messaging and the nation that was able to give the electorate something to believe in.

Contrasting the campaign of 2016 with what we have seen from Republicans since exposes why we are unable to win with Trump off the ballot. Most of the Republican party is unable to draw out Republican and Independent voters to support them en masse like the President, something that is due directly to their failed messaging. At the beginning of the Republican Primaries for 2016, Donald Trump was not the king maker of the Republican party, but just another one of the many candidates on stage. However what made him stand apart was his innovative message, Make America Great Again. This fundamentally broke from the norm of American conservatism by asserting three ideas. America was great, America is no longer great, and America can be great again. 

Trump’s slogan changed the conversation in conservative politics away from the negative vision of libertarians and the old right to a new positive vision of the future. Americans heard the President advocate building new highways, airports, and all types of crucial infrastructure. The people learned how he would build a wall, deport illegal immigrants, and fight crime. He was a candidate that gave voters something to look towards and not fight against. If we are going to win and bring out his coalition when he is not on the ballot, Republicans need to capture the energy and enthusiasm that comes with bringing something to the American people.

The other Republicans on that stage and the Republicans that we have seen run since all champion the same talking points and ideas that the Republican party has used for decades. To the American people, it always seems that we are against something. We are against taxes, we are against abortion, we are against welfare programs, we are against anything done by the government. This is not to argue against many of the core beliefs that Republicans hold, as it has been described before we are the beautiful losers who fight for the truth, but still never win. What created the environment for us to have success and sweep the House, Senate, and the Presidency in 2016 was the creation of a new vision.

The current campaigning strategy that we have seen from the likes of Ronna McDaniel and Mitch McConnell has not changed to match the success that we saw from this new strategy. Republican leadership must adapt or we are going to continue to fail in election after election. The American people need new, effective leaders and if we do not deliver then no one will.