Draft GOP autopsy of 2022 midterms urges candidates to stop ‘rehashing old grievances’
By Eric Bradner, Jeff Zeleny and Kristen Holmes, CNN
A draft Republican autopsy report on the party’s worse-than-expected showing in the 2022 midterm elections urges GOP candidates to move past complaints about how the 2020 and 2022 elections were run — a clear criticism of former President Donald Trump, who continues to falsely claim his loss was a result of widespread voter fraud.
The report does not mention Trump, the leading contender for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, by name.
But it takes direct aim at his grievances over the 2020 presidential election and false claims of widespread voter fraud in 2022.
Voters’ distaste for relitigating those elections, the draft report states, is among “the obvious lessons of the 2022 election cycle.”
“The Republican candidates in 2022 who delivered results and had a vision for the future did much, much better than those stuck in the past and rehashing old grievances,” the draft report says.
CNN obtained a portion of the draft report, which was expected to be circulated this week at a Republican National Committee meeting in Oklahoma City — however, a source familiar with the presentation said it was likely to be scuttled following reports of its contents.
The draft report was first reported by The Washington Post.
Some GOP officials bristled at the upbeat nature of the report — and the notable lack of Trump mentions — which was commissioned before the former president widened his lead in 2024 primary polling.
The report urges Republican candidates to offer an “aspirational message” that contrasts with President Joe Biden on issues such as taxes, school choice and border security, and to move past complaints about previous elections.
“America has always been a nation focused on the future. The American people want to move forward and rarely, if ever, are concerned about what happened in the past. The balance of survey data makes it clear that voters are done with the 2020 and 2022 elections. They have no patience for endless conversations relitigating previous elections from Democrats and Republicans,” the draft report states. “Those who don’t heed that lesson from 2022 will be more likely to lose in 2024 and successive cycles.”
The draft report describes “election integrity” as critical, but it also urges Republican campaigns to focus on tactics that Trump and some 2022 candidates eschewed, including mail-in voting.
“Republican campaigns must push our supporters to vote early in person or by mail. Republicans cannot continue to give Democrats a head start,” the draft report says.
Trump and a slew of Trump-backed Republican candidates who lost in 2022 — including Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and Senate candidate Blake Masters and Pennsylvania GOP nominee for governor Doug Mastriano — had campaigned on claims of voter fraud. Lake has still not conceded the Arizona governor’s race.
“Republicans have only won the popular vote once in the last eight presidential elections. Clearly, something is not working for us,” the draft report says.
It also describes the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade’s federal protections of abortion rights as politically damaging in the midterm elections.
“It is true: We underestimated the impact of Dobbs, and we failed to defend our position on the sanctity of life even though more Americans agree with us than with Democrats,” the draft report says. “Democrats will continue to engage on this issue, so we must learn our lesson.”
The-CNN-Wire
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