Brayden Myer
Before I explain why Republicans lost and my observations of this year’s election I would like to congratulate those who I endorsed that did win last night: Michael Alfonso for the 7th Congressional District, Nic Cravillion for the 1st State Senate District, and Bernie Newman for the 58th Assembly District. It is also great that Wisconsin also passed the partial veto ban and government discrimination ban amendments. To the many staffers across the various campaigns I met that did a great job I want you to know that I and many others appreciate all your hard work. To the county parties who did treat all candidates fairly and welcomed everyone in the Republican Party I and many others appreciate your fairness and openness to all voices. I truly believe Tom Tiffany and David Varnam was one of the greatest gubernatorial tickets we have ever seen. I am glad I traveled to Tom’s watch party and endorsed the gubernatorial ticket, along with every other candidate I endorsed that I gave words of encouragement to yesterday.
Now let’s get down to business.
I see three core reasons as to why this year’s midterms went against the Republicans. The first is the midterm penalty. This is the historical trend of the President’s party losing in the midterms. Since 1946, the president’s party has lost House seats in 19 of 21 midterms when counting this year. The second is there is a chunk of Republican voters who will vote in the presidential election every four years then not vote in any other election until the next presidential election. This chunk is large enough to see many losses in between presidential elections. The third is the actions of the Republican Party. Whether that is the 119th congress being the 2nd least productive congress in 40 years in terms of bills passed, the Senate failing to pass the bipartisan SAVE Act, or what is happening on the state level. When I was campaigning, I met a guy out in public who is a Republican and he told me he is very frustrated with the RPW and probably isn’t going to vote because of everything they are doing. This wasn’t someone who is involved in his county party. This was your typical everyday Republican voter.
To expand on that third point, I would like to point out a theory Lara Logan released leading up to the midterms: the Republican establishment is sabotaging the midterms so they can blame any losses on Trump and destroy the MAGA movement. I believe this theory is one we need to consider and these are some reasons why:
- The RPW and certain lower affiliates created the most divisive primary season I, and many others, have witnessed
- The Republican establishment did everything they can to prevent MAGA Republicans from winning their primaries
- The establishment knows the MAGA movement is a threat unlike any other they have come across and they will do what they can to retain power at all costs
- The scheduling team for their gubernatorial candidate was made up of “party folks,” if you would like to refer to them with that term, who decided to shun speaking requests from patriot groups and even a MAGA county party
- Certain individuals in county parties focused more on removing the memberships of MAGA Republicans than working to get candidates across the finish line, including one who was employed by their gubernatorial candidate
Because of the election results, we are likely going to see a push by the establishment faction of the Republican Party to recruit even more moderate candidates than they already have been. That is going to persuade more Republican voters to stay home as they’ll see too many policy overlaps with Democratic candidates to distinguish a difference between both parties’ candidates and ultimately lose more seats.
I also received word about a candidate who accepted a large amount of RACC contributions that this candidate was being told what to and what not to say on the campaign and which doors to go to, and if a door wasn’t on a list then don’t go to it. The candidate lost. Perhaps going to those extra doors could have won it, but leadership had to retain control of the candidate at all costs.
Another legislative candidate was told by her county Republican Party that her seat is “unwinnable” and they provided barely any help. Even Tyler August told her that and when she said to him that she is going to win he rolled his eyes. Neglect of key races is a losing strategy.
Something else I noticed is certain individuals active in the Republican Party who portrayed themselves as fighting the establishment reversed their mentality after the primary. All of a sudden they attempted to discredit anyone on the right who had even the slightest criticisms and documented accounts of wrongdoing in the Republican Party. Rather than taking those as what they need to address to ensure the average Republican voter isn’t discouraged from voting and that Republican candidates are solely focused on what they need to do to win, they adopted the party folk mentality. Now those problems may live on to the next election and beyond.
A lot of these folks say they want candidates to stay involved if they don’t win their elections. After this year’s primary, multiple candidates disappeared and the party people said nothing about them, while the MAGA candidates who did stay involved were heavily criticized by the establishment. Here is the thing, there is nothing that MAGA Republicans can do that will ever satisfy the party people. Since they don’t conform to their rules, they think for themselves, and will call out corruption when they see it, they will always be targeted. Once you realize that and start doing everything you know needs to be done you can go far and people appreciate it.
Something else I noticed about certain folks active in the party who said we need to fix our elections is after the non-endorsed RPW candidates made it through the primary then that talk about vulnerabilities in our elections stopped. No questions were asked about what is being presented to the public. Vulnerabilities don’t simply disappear when a certain candidate passes through a primary.
The reason I wrote this is to show what the Republican Party needs to improve upon if they want to win in the future. If you don’t know what’s wrong with your own party you will continue to make the same mistakes and throw your hands up the next time you lose, asking “why did we lose again?”
I also want to reassure everyone that I am keeping my promise I made after my primary to actively stay involved in the political realm. I traveled to many campaign and community events, spoke at fundraisers, endorsed candidates, wrote a letter to a local newspaper supporting those candidates and referendum questions, and became a citizen journalist, writing for the Ripon Rabbit Hole. I now started my own Substack (braydenmyer.substack.com) you can read all my articles on, such as the one you are reading now, and subscribe to have them sent to your email inbox. This is the best way to ensure you can stay up to date with my reporting you won’t see any other media source cover since soon we may see social media sites begin to mass censor conservatives again.
I will close with this advice to the Republican Party: eliminate the RPW primary endorsements and let’s bring new leadership to the state executive board.
