The president put himself at arm’s length from losing GOP candidates. Rank-and-file Republicans are left casting blame.
Donald Trump attributed Republicans’ Tuesday night losses in part to his absence from the ballot. Some of his closest allies blamed poor candidate quality. One Republican said the GOP failed to address rising costs.
It all added up to a night of finger-pointing and recriminations from Republicans, who sought to cast blame for their resounding losses in Virginia, New Jersey, California and several other statewide races in the first major election since Trump took office in January.
“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social shortly after Democrats were projected winners in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.
Off-year elections often prove an early referendum on how voters feel about the White House’s performance. Trump largely declined to enter the fray on behalf of GOP candidates up and down the ballot this year, and Republicans were quick to cast Tuesday night’s gloomy results as a factor of Democratic motivation in blue-leaning states rather than dissatisfaction with Trump himself — cushioning the blow of what 2025’s returns might mean for next year’s crucial midterm elections, while acknowledging some warning signs.
“It’s not doomsday but not a good tea leaf. Not a great night if you’re in the president’s party. But it’s also an off-year,” one White House ally said, who was granted anonymity to frankly discuss the election results. “Part of this is the struggle that has always been: how do you transfer his voters into other elections? There are people who only turn out when he’s on the ballot.”
“People aren’t feeling the promises kept,” the person added. “You won on lowering costs, putting more money back into people’s pockets. And people don’t feel that right now.”
The losses for Republicans, however, were stark. Democrats won all three statewide Virginia races and flipped 13 seats in the state House of Delegates; Democrat Mikie Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli by 13 points and Democrats took several counties Trump won in 2024; three Democratic Supreme Court justices kept their seats on the Pennsylvania high court; and California voters approved Proposition 50, which will redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor Democrats.
In red-leaning Georgia, Democrats even ousted two Republicans in a statewide election for the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a close Trump ally running for governor in Ohio, offered a blunt assessment, blaming the GOP’s poor showing in part on the party failing to address rising costs.
“We got our asses handed to us,” he said in a video posted on X.
Aides close to Trump pointed the finger at Winsome Earle-Sears and Ciattarelli, the two GOP candidates who got blown out in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey that had Republicans, at least in New Jersey, feeling optimistic at the start of their campaigns. Chris LaCivita, a former Trump campaign manager and longtime Virginia campaign operative, summed up Earle-Sears’ poor performance as a disaster of her own making.
“A Bad candidate and Bad campaign have consequences – the Virginia Governors race is example number 1,” he wrote on social media shortly after news outlets called the race for Winsome-Sears’ opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
Alex Breusewitz, head of a Trump-aligned super PAC and a former Trump campaign and White House adviser, accused Earle-Sears of being “no friend of President Trump” while urging Republican candidates to more strongly embrace the president in order to win elections.
Both Earle-Sears and Ciattarelli boasted their support for Trump throughout their campaigns — but Trump kept his distance from the Virginian in particular, who criticized him repeatedly in the years in between his presidency.
“Tonight was a great lesson for the Republican Party: running squishy Rs who are lukewarm on Trump and MAGA, even in ‘purple’ states, doesn’t work,” Breusewitz wrote on social media. “Your candidate needs to be able to turn out ALL FACTIONS of our party, and they do that by being MAGA all the way.”
“To be clear, NJ is not a referendum on Trump,” Mike Hahn, a GOP strategist based in New Jersey who advised a candidate Ciattarelli defeated in the primary and former Trump campaign staffer, said. “It is a reflection on Jack Ciattarelli, who has now lost three times and was always vulnerable.”
Few Republicans blamed the president for his decision to stay away from the races in Virginia, New York and California — a tacit acknowledgement that wading into campaigns in historically Democratic states could backfire. But Trump’s last-minute telerallies for Republicans on Monday laid bare how little he stood alongside the party’s most prominent GOP candidates.
Andrew Kolvet, the Turning Point USA spokesperson, said in a livestream on Charlie Kirk’s Youtube channel that he thinks Trump should have offered more support to Ciattarelli, who seemed to be the likeliest of the Republican candidates to pull out a victory heading into Election Day. Unlike Earle-Sears, Trump had specifically endorsed the New Jersey Republican by name.
“Do I think Trump should have gone out in New Jersey? Yes. Trump should absolutely have been out in New Jersey,” Kolvet said. “The people that love Trump, they would have been motivated by that.”