Senate Republicans Call Election Results Wake Up Call

Republican senators that are trying to win back the Senate majority say Democratic victories Tuesday in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are a wake-up call ahead of next year’s elections.

The senators, who are trying to defeat Democrats in Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other swing states, said Tuesday’s results show that abortion remains a big issue that will help Democrats next year.

They also warned of voter turnout problems that could hurt them in competitive Senate battlegrounds as it did in Ohio on Tuesday.

From The Hill:

That problem was on display in Ohio where suburban voters turned out in big numbers to pass a ballot measure to protect the right to abortion from state government restrictions until the point when a fetus can survive on its own, which is roughly 23 weeks.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called Tuesday’s election results “very disappointing.”

Thom Tillis: "Yesterday to me was a complete failure."

Mitt Romney: "When we're talking about people's lives, we win. When we're talking about some social issues .. we end up not doing as well"

Thune: "We have to have a compelling message that appeals to suburban voters" pic.twitter.com/oZQDsZK00p

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 8, 2023

“Part of what we have to do is get the vote out. I don’t know if you all saw the disturbing number[s] [for] turnout. Clearly, these were races that Democrats didn’t win, Republicans lost. We didn’t show up,” he said.

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“It’s about execution; it’s about messaging, and we’ve got to do a better job,” he said. “Yesterday, to me, was complete failure.”

The ballot initiative enshrining abortion rights until the point of fetal viability passed in Ohio with 57 percent of the vote.

“It’s depressing,” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said of the election result in his home state. “It suggests that the pro-life movement, we need to figure out how to actually win because clearly there’s something that’s broken down between what we’re saying and what voters actually believe. We’ve got to figure out how to close that gap.”

For pro lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it.

Giving up on the unborn is not an option. It's politically dumb and morally repugnant. Instead, we need to understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war.

I was very involved in the "no" campaign for…

— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 8, 2023

“For pro-lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it,” he also wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said abortion and Republican candidates’ association with Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen hurt Republicans on Tuesday.

“If we spend our time looking back to 2020 and the 2020 election, the American people have moved on and they want to talk about their future, not what happened in the past,” he said.