Republicans may have won the popular vote nationwide in the 2022 midterms, though that figure did not translate into a GOP sweep as predicted by several observers, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday.
Gingrich also said there should be a postmortem-type review of where the GOP could improve and what it got right in the midterm election, similar to how the RNC has done in past races.
“I look at this and there’s so many questions – in 2014 when we won, Reince Priebus who was the Republican National Committee chairman, asked me to develop a review – even though we had won – to try to figure it out. And I think that Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the RNC, ought to set up a similar review committee,” he said.
“There’s so many questions that we need to get answered,” Gingrich added, pointing to reports that House Republicans earned 6 million more net votes as of Thursday than their Democratic competitors despite more anemic gains than predicted.
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Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt.
(Associated Press)
“We need to examine that. Apparently, some incumbents lost who shouldn’t have. We should examine that. No incumbent lost in 2020 with Kevin McCarthy’s leadership and no Republican lost in 1994 when we took the House.”
Gingrich said the 6 million reported popular vote margin – which he said is likely to shrink somewhat as California returns continue to come in – should be a key facet of that investigation.
“We had five or 6 million more votes and we don’t pick up a whole bunch of seats. We need to analyze that. I mean, there’s something going on out there that we don’t understand,” he said.
“But, I can’t wait for the moment where Pelosi has to hand… Kevin McCarthy the gavel and the degree to which in committees and investigations and scheduling things, all of a sudden you’re in a totally different House.”
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The race between GOP candidate Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs is still undecided.
With votes still continuing to be counted in states like Maryland, California, Nevada and Arizona, Gingrich said Republicans remain poised to take the House and potentially gain a 1-seat majority in the Senate – especially if Nevada’s Adam Laxalt comes out victorious and Georgia’s Herschel Walker wins an upcoming runoff.
In otherwise blue Maryland – which saw its governorship flip from Republican to Democrat – State Del. Neil Parrott, R-Hagerstown, leads incumbent Rep. David Trone by about one point with more than 90% reporting.
A win by Parrott would be another plus-one notch for House Republicans, and he would join the state’s longtime lone House Republican Dr. Andy Harris of the Eastern Shore district.
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Incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
In Arizona, Republican Senate hopeful Blake Masters trails Sen. Mark Kelly by a larger margin than Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake trails Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt and Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., are separated by a razor-thin margin as votes come in in tranches from Clark County and elsewhere.
“I think Adam is going to win,” Gingrich said on “Hannity.” “I think now that Blake Masters is going to win and I look at what’s happening with Kari Lake: She’s going to win. We’re going to end up by the time this is over, every effort of the news media to make Republicans feel bad is going to fall apart.”
“And remember, the biggest change in Washington will be when Nancy Pelosi hands that gavel over to Kevin McCarthy. You go from a radical liberal to a solid conservative. That is the biggest single change.”
Gingrich said Joe Biden’s celebratory press conference on Wednesday showed the president “has no idea what’s going on” and is likely to continue his far-left governing position.
