A letter to the WSJ by Jim LeMunyon [View all]

The miscalculation Republican leadership made in 2020 was to think enough voters would vote their economic self-interest to re-elect Donald Trump, while setting aside their frustration with Donald Trump’s unpresidential manner and style. Many voters did this, but many did not, and one only needs to look to the suburbs of Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Phoenix for the evidence.

Republicans had fair warning after seeing suburban Republicans routed in places like Virginia in 2017 and in suburban congressional districts nationally in 2018. As one of the Virginia Republican legislators who lost in 2017, I stood at the polls on Election Day shaking hands with voters. By 10 a.m. I had lost count of the number of voters who thanked me for doing a fine job but said they would vote against me to “send a message to Trump.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elections-of-2017-and-2018-should-have-alerted-gop-11615145752 (subscription)

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I think that if he is right, we need to change our country wide approach for the 2022 midterm, not to think that 2018 will be repeated.