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US

GOP Rep. Jim Banks announces Indiana US Senate campaign

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CNN
 — 

Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks announced on Tuesday that he is running for US Senate, seeking the seat left open by outgoing Republican Sen. Mike Braun, who is running for governor.

“We NEED conservatives in Washington who aren’t afraid to fight Biden’s radical agenda. That’s why I am running to represent our great state of Indiana in the United States Senate,” Banks wrote in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Banks, a Navy veteran and conservative who just won his fourth term in the House, is the first to enter what could be a crowded and competitive GOP primary for the open Senate seat in a reliably red state. The Club for Growth has already started attacking one of his potential rivals, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, launching a 60-second digital ad last week.

Other prominent candidates who have expressed interest include current Gov. Eric Holcomb and 5th Congressional District Rep. Vicky Spartz.

This story has been updated with additional details.



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Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent

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CNN
 — 

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a political independent, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview.

“I’ve registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually, I think it makes a lot of sense,” Sinema said in a Thursday interview with Tapper in her Senate office.

“I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to,” she added. “Removing myself from the partisan structure – not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.”

Sinema’s move away from the Democratic Party is unlikely to change the power balance in the next Senate. Democrats will have a narrow 51-49 majority that includes two independents who caucus with them: Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.

While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same. She did note, however, that she expects to keep her committee assignments – a signal that she doesn’t plan to upend the Senate composition, since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer controls committee rosters for Democrats.

“When I come to work each day, it’ll be the same,” Sinema said. “I’m going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I’ve been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues at both political parties.”

But Sinema’s decision to become a political independent makes official what’s long been an independent streak for the Arizona senator, who began her political career as a member of the Green Party before being elected as a Democrat to the US House in 2012 and US Senate in 2018. Sinema has prided herself on being a thorn in the side of Democratic leaders, and her new nonpartisan affiliation will further free her to embrace an against-the-grain status in the Senate, though it raises new questions about how she – and Senate Democrats – will approach her reelection in 2024 with liberals already mulling a challenge.

Sinema wrote an op-ed in the Arizona Republic released Friday explaining her decision, noting that her approach in the Senate has “upset partisans in both parties.”

“When politicians are more focused on denying the opposition party a victory than they are on improving Americans’ lives, the people who lose are everyday Americans,” Sinema wrote.

“That’s why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington.”

Sinema is up for reelection in 2024 and liberals in Arizona are already floating potential challengers, including Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who said earlier this year that some Democratic senators have urged him to run against Sinema.

“Unfortunately, Senator Sinema is once again putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans,” Gallego said in a statement following Sinema’s announcement.

Sinema declined to address questions about her reelection bid in the interview with Tapper, saying that simply isn’t her focus right now.

She also brushed aside criticism she may face for the decision to leave the Democratic Party.

“I’m just not worried about folks who may not like this approach,” Sinema said. “What I am worried about is continuing to do what’s right for my state. And there are folks who certainly don’t like my approach, we hear about it a lot. But the proof is in the pudding.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Sinema a “key partner” following her decision and said the White House has “every reason to expect that we will continue to work successfully with her.”

Sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that Sinema gave the White House a heads up that she was leaving the Democratic Party. Schumer said in a statement he also was aware of Sinema’s bombshell announcement ahead of Friday morning.

“She asked me to keep her committee assignments and I agreed,” Schumer said. “Kyrsten is independent; that’s how she’s always been. I believe she’s a good and effective Senator and am looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.”

Schumer also outlined how he did not expect Sinema’s decision to impact Democrats’ plans for next year, saying in his statement, “We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power, and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes.”

The Biden White House is offering a muted reaction Friday morning and insisting that they expect to continue having a productive working relationship with the senator.

One White House official tells CNN that the move “doesn’t change much” other than Sinema’s own reelection calculations.

“We’ve worked with her effectively on a lot of major legislation from CHIPS to the bipartisan infrastructure law,” the official said. The White House, for now, has “every reason to expect that will continue,” they added.

Sinema has long been the source of a complex convergence of possibility, frustration and confusion inside the White House.

“Rubik’s cube, I guess?” was how one former senior White House official described the Arizona senator who has played a central role in President Joe Biden’s largest legislative wins and also some of his biggest agenda disappointments.

There was no major push to get Sinema to change her mind, a White House official said, noting that it wouldn’t have made a difference.

“Nothing about the last two years indicates a major effort would’ve made helped – the exact opposite actually,” a White House official said.

The most urgent near-term effort was to quietly find out what it meant for their newly expanded Senate majority, officials said.

While there were still clear details to figure out about process, “I think people exhaled when we had a better understanding of what she meant,” one source familiar with the discussion said.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told “CNN This Morning” that “Senator Sinema has always had an independent streak,” adding that “I don’t believe this is going to shake things up quite like everyone thinks.”

She added, “Senator Sinema has been an independent in all intents and purposes.”

Sinema and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have infuriated liberals at various points over the past two years, standing in the way of Biden’s agenda at a time when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House.

Sinema and Manchin used their sway in the current 50-50 Senate – where any single Democrat could derail a bill – to influence a host of legislation, especially the massive $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill that Biden proposed last year. Sinema’s objections to increasing the corporate tax rate during the initial round of negotiations over the legislation last year particularly rankled liberals.

While Sinema was blindsided by the surprise deal that Manchin cut with Schumer in July on major health care and energy legislation, she ultimately backed the smaller spending package that Biden signed into law before the election.

Both Manchin and Sinema also opposed changes to the Senate’s filibuster rules despite pressure from their Senate colleagues and Biden to change them. After a vote against filibuster changes in January, the Arizona Democratic Party’s executive board censured Sinema.

Sinema has been in the middle of several significant bipartisan bills that were passed since Biden took office. She pointed to that record as evidence that her approach has been an effective one.

“I’ve been honored to lead historic efforts, from infrastructure, to gun violence prevention, to protecting religious liberty and helping LGBT families feel secure, to the CHIPs and science bill to the work we’ve done on veterans’ issues,” she told CNN. “The list is really long. And so I think that the results speak for themselves. It’s OK if some people aren’t comfortable with that approach.”

Sinema’s announcement comes just days after Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won reelection in Georgia, securing Democrats a 51st Senate seat that frees them from reliance on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote.

Sinema declined to address questions about whether she would support Biden for president in 2024, and she also said she’s not thinking about whether a strong third party should emerge in the US.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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Raphael Warnock will win Georgia Senate runoff, CNN projects, in final midterm rebuke of Trump’s influence

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CNN
 — 

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will win Georgia’s Senate runoff, CNN projects, giving Democrats greater leverage in the Senate next year and delivering a critical blow to former President Donald Trump after a defeat of yet another one of his hand-picked candidates.

With Warnock’s defeat of Republican challenger Herschel Walker, Democrats will control 51 seats to the GOP’s 49.

The race closes out a difficult midterm cycle for Republicans – who won the House majority but saw their hopes for Capitol Hill dominance dashed by the troubled candidacies of some Trump-backed Senate nominees.

“There are no excuses in life and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” Walker told supporters after calling Warnock.

The runoff was a final midterm test of the former president’s influence as he embarks on a third White House bid. It was also a sign that – in the wake of President Joe Biden narrowly carrying the state in 2020, combined with two Senate runoff wins that handed him a Democratic Senate in 2021 – Georgia is now definitively a purple state.

In his victory speech, Warnock alluded to the fact that the runoff was his fourth campaign in two years. “After a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken.”

“I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children,” Warnock continued. “You have put in the hard work and here we are standing together.”

The president called Warnock after arriving back in Washington from an event in Arizona and tweeted: “Tonight Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected Ultra MAGAism, and most importantly: sent a good man back to the Senate. Here’s to six more years.”

The recriminations arrived swiftly for the GOP late Tuesday night.

“The only way to explain this is candidate quality,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN, noting the delta between Gov. Brian Kemp’s November victory and where it appears that Walker will end up when all the votes are counted.

He said he hoped Warnock’s victory would serve as a wake-up call for the GOP. “If we don’t take our medicine here, it’s our fault. … Every Republican in this country ought to hold Donald Trump accountable for this.”

Many Republicans attributed the closeness of the race on Tuesday night to the fact that Kemp came to Walker’s rescue in the runoff after keeping his distance during last month’s general election. He not only campaigned for him but put the muscle of his own turnout operation into efforts to help the GOP Senate nominee.

Morale among Walker’s campaign staff hit an all-time low in its final days as it became clear to them their candidate would likely lose his race to Warnock, according to multiple people familiar with his campaign.

Several of Walker’s staff members became frustrated as the runoff election progressed over the last month, sensing their advice for the embattled candidate wasn’t being heeded as outside voices with little political experience were empowered.

In addition to dealing with a slew of scandals, Walker’s campaign tried to adjust his message to more closely align with the successful one Kemp ran on, but ultimately felt their candidate declined to take strategic advice, was reluctant to hit the campaign trail and largely declined media interviews in the final days.

“He’s so proud he doesn’t like taking advice,” one person familiar with the campaign told CNN, adding that he instead leaned on his wife Julie Blanchard for most decisions rather than empowering his team.

Democratic control of the Senate next year was already settled by hard-fought contests in states like Nevada, where Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto clung to her seat despite economic headwinds, and in Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman picked up a GOP-held seat.

The Senate has been evenly divided 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes. That has given inordinate power to moderate figures like Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have often single-handedly curbed the ambitions of their party. Warnock securing a full six-year term will allow Democrats to dispense with the current power-sharing agreement with Republicans, while making it easier to advance Biden’s nominees.

Biden and his advisers have been keenly aware of what a significant difference the single extra seat can make. “It means a lot,” is how one Democrat familiar with the White House’s thinking put it very simply.

Though Warnock gained more votes than Walker in last month’s general election, he did not earn the majority needed to win outright. The ensuing runoff had attracted more than $80 million in ad spending, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact, with Democrats spending about twice as much as Republicans.

Warnock held a narrow lead over Walker in a CNN poll released last week. Walker had a negative favorability rating as voters questioned his honesty after a series of scandals. He’s denied reports that he pressured or encouraged women to have abortions, despite previously advocating for bans on the procedure without exceptions on the campaign trail. CNN’s KFile has reported that he is getting a tax break intended only for a primary residence this year on his home in the Dallas, Texas, area – while running for the seat in Georgia.

The state broke single-day early voting records last week, but the early voting period was significantly condensed from 2021. The overall number of voters decreased from roughly 3.1 million last year to about 1.87 million in 2022. Democrats were optimistic, in part, because of Black voters – who strongly favored Warnock in CNN’s poll. They accounted for nearly 32% of the turnout in early voting, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

Walker, however, was counting on robust turnout among GOP voters, who tend to vote in greater numbers on Election Day.

But Trump – who, like Biden, steered clear of the Peach State during the runoff – complicated GOP fortunes across the country this year as voters rejected many of his election-denying candidates in swing states.

Some of the earliest signs of that were in Georgia two years ago, when his efforts to raise doubts about mail-in ballots and vote counting were blamed, in part, for the GOP’s 2021 losses in twin runoffs that handed Democrats control of the Senate.

This year, the former president’s efforts to exact revenge on Kemp – who rebuffed Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 election – were soundly rejected by voters in the primary. Kemp went on to handily defeat Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams last month, garnering about 200,000 more votes than Walker.

After watching losses in key states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, top Republicans are planning a more aggressive push to prop up candidates in primaries that they deem as more electable. The incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, told CNN: “Clearly you want to see candidates who can win general elections and we’re gonna keep working that in.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.



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Raphael Warnock will win Georgia Senate runoff, CNN projects, in final midterm rebuke of Trump’s influence

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CNN
 — 

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock will win Georgia’s Senate runoff, CNN projects, giving Democrats greater leverage in the Senate next year and delivering a critical blow to former President Donald Trump after a defeat of yet another one of his hand-picked candidates.

With Warnock’s defeat of Republican challenger Herschel Walker, Democrats will control 51 seats to the GOP’s 49.

The race closes out a difficult midterm cycle for Republicans – who won the House majority but saw their hopes for Capitol Hill dominance dashed by the troubled candidacies of some Trump-backed Senate nominees.

“There are no excuses in life and I’m not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” Walker told supporters after calling Warnock.

The runoff was a final midterm test of the former president’s influence as he embarks on a third White House bid. It was also a sign that – in the wake of President Joe Biden narrowly carrying the state in 2020, combined with two Senate runoff wins that handed him a Democratic Senate in 2021 – Georgia is now definitively a purple state.

In his victory speech, Warnock alluded to the fact that the runoff was his fourth campaign in two years. “After a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken.”

“I often say that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children,” Warnock continued. “You have put in the hard work and here we are standing together.”

The recriminations arrived swiftly for the GOP late Tuesday night.

“The only way to explain this is candidate quality,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN, noting the delta between Gov. Brian Kemp’s November victory and where it appears that Walker will end up when all the votes are counted.

He said he hoped Warnock’s victory would serve as a wake-up call for the GOP. “If we don’t take our medicine here, it’s our fault. … Every Republican in this country ought to hold Donald Trump accountable for this.”

Many Republicans attributed the closeness of the race on Tuesday night to the fact that Kemp came to Walker’s rescue in the runoff after keeping his distance during last month’s general election. He not only campaigned for him but put the muscle of his own turnout operation into efforts to help the GOP Senate nominee.

Democratic control of the Senate next year was already settled by hard-fought contests in states like Nevada, where Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto clung to her seat despite economic headwinds, and in Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman picked up a GOP-held seat.

The Senate has been evenly divided 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes. That has given inordinate power to moderate figures like Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have often single-handedly curbed the ambitions of their party. Warnock securing a full six-year term will allow Democrats to dispense with the current power-sharing agreement with Republicans, while making it easier to advance Biden’s nominees.

Though Warnock gained more votes than Walker in last month’s general election, he did not earn the majority needed to win outright. The ensuing runoff had attracted more than $80 million in ad spending, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact, with Democrats spending about twice as much as Republicans.

Warnock held a narrow lead over Walker in a CNN poll released last week. Walker had a negative favorability rating as voters questioned his honesty after a series of scandals. He’s denied reports that he pressured or encouraged women to have abortions, despite previously advocating for bans on the procedure without exceptions on the campaign trail. CNN’s KFile has reported that he is getting a tax break intended only for a primary residence this year on his home in the Dallas, Texas, area – while running for the seat in Georgia.

The state broke single-day early voting records last week, but the early voting period was significantly condensed from 2021. The overall number of voters decreased from roughly 3.1 million last year to about 1.87 million in 2022. Democrats were optimistic, in part, because of Black voters – who strongly favored Warnock in CNN’s poll. They accounted for nearly 32% of the turnout in early voting, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

Walker, however, was counting on robust turnout among GOP voters, who tend to vote in greater numbers on Election Day.

But Trump – who, like Biden, steered clear of the Peach State during the runoff – complicated GOP fortunes across the country this year as voters rejected many of his election-denying candidates in swing states.

Some of the earliest signs of that were in Georgia two years ago, when his efforts to raise doubts about mail-in ballots and vote counting were blamed, in part, for the GOP’s 2021 losses in twin runoffs that handed Democrats control of the Senate.

This year, the former president’s efforts to exact revenge on Kemp – who rebuffed Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 election – were soundly rejected by voters in the primary. Kemp went on to handily defeat Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams last month, garnering about 200,000 more votes than Walker.

After watching losses in key states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, top Republicans are planning a more aggressive push to prop up candidates in primaries that they deem as more electable. The incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, told CNN: “Clearly you want to see candidates who can win general elections and we’re gonna keep working that in.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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5 things to watch in Tuesday’s Georgia Senate race

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CNN
 — 

The final drama of the 2022 midterm elections is coming to a head in Georgia on Tuesday, as Peach State voters – for the second time in as many years – cast ballots in a high-stakes US Senate runoff.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was the leading vote-getter in the November general election, over Republican nominee Herschel Walker, but he fell short of the majority need to win the race outright.

Now it’s a one-on-one contest and both parties have gone all-in to boost their ranks in the Democratic-controlled Senate and send a message ahead of the 2024 presidential election, when Georgia could again be a decisive swing state. The spending by campaigns and aligned outside groups has been stratospheric and turnout, despite the state’s new election laws allowing for fewer days of early voting, was robust ahead of Tuesday’s election.

As voting ends in Georgia one last time this year, here are five things to watch for during and immediately after the runoff.

For the past few weeks, Georgia Republican election officials have been crowing about early in-person voting turnout. On Friday, the state broke its single-day record, again, when more than 350,000 people went to the polls to cast ballots before Election Day.

But these numbers, and the narrative around them, might ultimately be misleading. Though several days last week ended with historically high single-day tallies, the overall number of early voters – as compared to the 2021 election – actually went down, from roughly 3.1 million last year to about 1.87 million during this year’s condensed early voting period. (In the general election this year, about 2.5 million voted before Election Day.)

The reason is simple: Under Georgia’s controversial voting law, passed in the months after last year’s runoffs, the time between the general election and the runoff was reduced from nine weeks to four. The compressed timeframe also meant fewer days of early voting and less time for voters to return mail-in ballots.

Given the obvious interest in the race, it’s a question of whether voters accustomed to voting before Election Day will show up Tuesday, and how that shift in behavior might affect wait times and counting of the votes. Difficulties at polling places are more likely to pop up in urban centers, where Warnock is hoping to run up the score against Walker.

In the 2020 cycle, Democrats had to sweep both Senate runoffs in Georgia to secure the 50-50 split in the Senate that, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ status as the tie-breaking vote, would give them control.

This time, Democrats have already retained control, with 50 seats clinched last month and Georgia representing a potential 51st.

But the stakes remain high: A Warnock victory would give Democrats the majority outright, rather than requiring the power-sharing agreement that is now in place. And that outright majority would come with significant benefits for the party. Democrats would have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance President Joe Biden’s nominees more easily.

For example: The Senate Judiciary Committee, with its 22 members, would shift from a split of 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans to 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans. That would remove a GOP procedural mechanism to slow down the confirmation of Biden’s judicial nominees.

It’s why advertising spending in the runoff has surpassed $80 million, according to a CNN analysis of data from ad tracking firm AdImpact. Democrats have outspent Republicans so far, by about $55.1 million to $25.8 million.

Walker coasted to the Republican nomination in Georgia in large part because of the support of former President Donald Trump.

But Trump’s endorsement – while powerful enough to catapult his preferred contenders to the nominations in Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere – turned out to be an anchor in competitive statewide races this year.

Trump-backed candidates such as venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and former state attorney general Adam Laxalt in Nevada fumbled winnable races, while venture capitalist J.D. Vance, who eked out a victory in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary thanks to Trump’s last-minute endorsement, survived a much tougher-than-expected contest with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

A loss by Walker could further erode Republicans’ confidence in Trump’s ability to pick winners. It would also demonstrate what every national election since 2016 has shown: In many places, a close connection with Trump is a political liability.

As the 2024 Republican presidential primary begins to take shape, Trump – who hosted a tele-rally for Walker on Monday night – is already facing potential intra-party rivals emboldened by 2022’s results. A Walker loss would amplify calls for the party to turn elsewhere for leadership.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp kept his distance from Walker as he coasted to reelection in a rematch with Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. Since his victory, though, Kemp has much more fully embraced his party’s Senate nominee – despite the governor’s bad blood with Trump.

Kemp has appeared with Walker at rallies. He has cut television ads for the former University of Georgia football star. And he has loaned the get-out-the-vote operation that helped propel him to victory to a Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell-aligned super PAC, seeking to help Walker with the ground game his campaign lacked.

If Walker wins, it will be Kemp’s direct involvement in helping to convince the suburbanites who split their tickets in November, rather than Trump’s occasional support from a distance, that played the most important role.

With states like Florida and Ohio turning a deeper shade of red, Democrats are desperate to broaden their national playing field. And Georgia appears to be their prime target following the 2020 election, when Biden won the presidency and Warnock and Jon Ossoff flipped the state’s Senate seats. Biden even suggested moving up its presidential primary to fourth on the calendar in his recent letter to the Democratic National Committee.

That theory – or hope – faces a significant test on Tuesday.

With Kemp emerging as Walker’s surrogate of choice during the homestretch, the results of the runoff could be viewed at litmus test for Georgia Democrats. Specifically, whether the state has emerged as a true toss-up.

If Warnock wins despite Kemp’s willingness to lend his personal popularity and turnout apparatus to Walker, Democrats might actually be on to something. Though many in both parties would agree Walker has been a less-than-stellar nominee, he now has the firm, outspoken support of the state and national GOP behind him. If that’s not enough to put him over the top, Republicans’ problems in Georgia are likely down to something more lasting than “candidate quality” issues.

On the flip side, a Walker victory would – for many of the same reasons – point precisely in the opposite direction. Georgia Republicans this year notched a clean sweep of statewide positions, with the exception, so far, of the US Senate seat still up for grabs. If Walker wins, despite all the concerns around his campaign, it will underscore the GOP’s abiding strength in the Peach State – as long as Trump is out of sight and mind.

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What we know about Georgia voters ahead of Senate runoff

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CNN
 — 

For the past two years, the eyes of the political world keep turning back to Georgia.

And for the second time in two years, voters in this key state will choose their senator in a runoff election, which this time will determine whether Democrats expand on their 50-50 majority.

Early data shows voters are not tired of their civic duty.

Heading into Tuesday’s Senate runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, nearly 1.5 million Georgians have voted early after only about a week. Black voters have made up nearly a third of the early electorate so far, while more than a quarter of voters so far are under 50.

About 300,000 Georgians have voted early each day this week – setting records for the largest single-day early voting turnout in state history. Early voting for the runoff ended on Friday.

Georgians had only five mandatory days of early voting this year, compared with three weeks during the last runoff and for last month’s general election. All but 22 counties chose not to allow early voting last Saturday and Sunday as well.

Overall, 2022 midterm turnout was slightly up from the 2018 midterms but down more than 21% from the 2020 general election.

While midterm voters typically skew older and Whiter, turnout data from the Georgia secretary of state’s office shows that in 2022, midterm voters in Georgia were older and Whiter than they have been in the past four elections, including the 2018 midterms. Those voters tend to lean Republican. The fact that Warnock not only forced a runoff but also narrowly led Walker in the first round of voting last month suggests he had the support of independent and some Republican voters, political scientists told CNN.

“The key to Warnock was that according to the exit polls, he won the independent vote by a pretty big margin,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “And that was enough to pull him through. In the runoff, I think he’ll need to do that as well.”

CNN exit polls of Georgia voters in the November election show that the share of independent voters shrank 4 percentage points compared with 2020. However, independent voters were 24% of the electorate, which Warnock won by 11 points, according to CNN exit polls.

A slightly larger share of White voters and smaller shares of Black, Asian and Latino voters cast their ballots in 2022 compared with Georgia’s previous three midterm elections and runoffs. The share of Black voters was the lowest of any Georgia election since the 2018 midterms.

A CNN exit poll from 2021 showed that Warnock won 93% of Black voters in Georgia’s last runoff election, a 6-point improvement from the general election held in November 2020.

Black voters’ share of Georgia’s electorate increased in the 2021 runoff election when Warnock faced Sen. Kelly Loeffler after neither took a majority of the vote in the 2020 general election. Black voters made up 28% of the Georgia electorate in that runoff, slightly higher than their share in the 2020 general election. Black voter turnout was highest when Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, first ran against now-Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, for governor in 2018.

Voters in the 2022 midterms were also older. Georgians over 50 represented 59% of the electorate this year, a new high since 2018. The share of voters under 30, meanwhile, shrank to 11%, its lowest point since 2018.

Exit polls show Warnock was able this year to sustain the improvements he made in the 2021 runoff election with the youngest voters and those in urban areas. He won 68% of the 18-24 vote in the 2021 runoff – a 16-point improvement over Democrats in the 2020 general election. He also won the support of 67% of urban voters in the 2021 runoff, 4 points more than Democrats’ share in 2020. Warnock won 69% of 18-24 year-olds and 68% of urban voters in last month’s general election.

Last month’s election was unusual in that more than 17,000 Georgians skipped the Senate race at the top of the ballot but did vote for governor.

“We aren’t entirely sure, but it is highly likely that those voters are probably Republicans,” said Amy Steigerwalt, a political science professor at Georgia State University.

There were also Kemp voters this year who crossed the aisle to vote for Warnock and then voted for the rest of the Republican ticket, Steigerwalt said. Kemp received 2.1 million votes, roughly 200,000 more than Walker.

The big question for this runoff is how Walker does when he runs on his own and without a chance of Republicans regaining control of the Senate, Abramowitz told CNN.

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Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker described himself as living in Texas during 2022 campaign speech

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CNN
 — 

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, facing renewed and growing questions about his residency in the final week of the runoff campaign, described himself during a campaign speech in January as living in Texas and said he decided to run for Georgia’s Senate seat while at his Texas “home,” according to a CNN KFile review of his campaign speeches.

Georgia Democrats have called for an investigation by state officials into Walker’s residency after CNN’s KFile reported last week that Walker was getting a tax break in Texas intended for a primary residence, possibly running afoul of Texas tax law and some rules for establishing Georgia residency for voting and running for office.

“I live in Texas,” Walker said in January of this year, when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans. Walker was criticizing Democrats for not visiting the border when he made the comments. “I went down to the border off and on sometimes,” he said.

Earlier in the speech, Walker said he decided to run for Georgia’s Senate seat while at his Texas home after seeing the country divided.

“Everyone asks me, why did I decide to run for a Senate seat? Because to be honest with you, this is never something I ever, ever, ever thought in my life I’d ever do,” said Walker. “And that’s the honest truth. As I was sitting in my home in Texas, I was sitting in my home in Texas, and I was seeing what was going on in this country. I was seeing what was going on in this country with how they were trying to divide people.”

The Georgia Republican is heading into a runoff election against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on December 6. Walker and his campaign have so far not commented to CNN or others on the reporting of the tax break or questions about his residency.

On Monday, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that Georgia authorities have been urged in a complaint to investigate Walker’s residency. Georgia Democrats in a statement called for an immediate investigation of Walker’s residency, and Congresswoman Nikema Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, also asked authorities to see if Walker lied about living in Georgia.

“The Georgia Bureau of Investigations and the Georgia Attorney General’s office must immediately investigate whether Herschel Walker lied about being a Georgia resident,” Williams said.

A CNN KFile review of some of Walker’s media appearances and events from 2021 and 2022 finds Walker appeared on Fox News and other conservative media from his Texas home at least four times after announcing his candidacy for Georgia’s Senate seat.

The interviews at his Texas home took place twice in September 2021 and in February and March of 2022.

Before announcing, all of Walker’s media appearances on Fox News and on other conservative media, around 20 in total, took place in Texas.

Georgia Gov. Kemp asked if Herschel Walker shares his values. Hear his reply

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Early voting begins in some Georgia counties as Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker sprint to December 6 runoff

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CNN
 — 

A week-long early voting period begins Saturday in some Georgia counties as Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker enter a week-and-a-half, post-Thanksgiving sprint to their December 6 runoff election.

Unlike the 2021 runoffs, control of the Senate is not on the line, with Democrats having won 50 seats already and Vice President Kamala Harris giving the party a tie-breaking vote.

However, the stakes remain high: A Warnock victory would give Democrats the majority outright, rather than requiring the power-sharing agreement that is now in place. Democrats would have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance President Joe Biden’s nominees more easily.

Georgia’s Supreme Court delivered Warnock a victory Wednesday, allowing counties to offer early voting on Saturday. Democrats said they expected as many as 22 counties to do so – some in heavily populated areas around Atlanta, including DeKalb and Fulton, as well as Chatham County, home of Savannah.

That ruling followed a legal battle triggered by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s interpretation of the state’s 2021 voting law. He said the new law restricted weekend voting immediately after holidays.

That 2021 law cut in half the timeline for runoff elections, to four weeks, and limited the early voting window to a minimum of five days rather than the minimum of 16 days that had been in place when Democrats won two Senate runoffs in the state in January 2021.

As many as 22 of the state’s 159 counties let voters cast their ballots Saturday.

At a polling site in Atlanta, Boston College student Emma Demilio said she probably wouldn’t have been able to vote in person if the early voting sites hadn’t opened.

“This is kind of the only time that I’m in Georgia and able to vote. I leave tomorrow, so I was really happy I was able to get it in,” she said, adding that she may have tried to scramble for an absentee ballot.

Warnock continues to outraise Walker as they enter the final stretch.

Warnock raised nearly $52.2 million from October 20 through November 16, a period covering the end of the general election and roughly the first week of the runoff. Walker collected $20.9 million in that time, according to his campaign’s filings with the Federal Election Commission. Warnock ended the period with more than $29.7 million remaining in the bank, more than three times the $9.8 million left in the coffers of his rival.

Warnock is set to bring in a top Democratic surrogate: Former President Barack Obama is slated to travel to Atlanta on Thursday for a rally ahead of the final day of early voting.

So far, Obama is the only president past or present slated to visit Georgia ahead of the runoff.

Neither President Joe Biden, to whom Walker’s campaign has tried to latch Warnock, nor former President Donald Trump, who was in office when Republicans lost two Senate runoffs two years ago, have scheduled trips to the state. On Saturday, Warnock appeared with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) at a rally in Sandy Springs, just outside of Atlanta.

Trump allies, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been out in force for Walker, the former president himself has not campaigned with the candidate he recruited.

Other Republicans, meanwhile, are rallying around Walker, with the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, pumping more than $10 million into the race since the general election.

In addition to the new influx of outside spending, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who cruised to re-election earlier this month, made his first appearance with Walker on the trail after stiff-arming the former football great throughout the fall.

Kemp defeated a primary challenger backed by Trump in May and then outpaced Walker by more than 200,000 votes in the general election – a sign both of his crossover appeal to moderate Democrats and Walker’s difficulties consolidating Republicans.

Still, Democrats said they doubted Kemp could rescue Walker in a runoff election in which Walker is the only Republican on the ballot.

“There’s tons of folks that voted for Raphael Warnock and Brian Kemp,” said Jason Carter, the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor and grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.

He called Warnock a “unique figure,” noting that he “got more votes than Herschel Walker and he got more votes than any other Democrat.”

“People appreciate him. And they think of him as Raphael Warnock first, and as his political party and all that other stuff second,” Carter said.

A new potential flashpoint in the runoff election emerged Wednesday. The Georgia Supreme Court, in a separate legal battle, also reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban.

It was a policy victory for the Republicans who had enacted that ban and defended it in court, but one that could come at a political cost, reviving the backlash over the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade that energized Democrats and swung moderate voters in their favor on the party’s way to a surprisingly strong showing in this year’s midterm elections.

In the midterms, according to CNN exit polls, 28% of Georgia voters said abortion was the most important issue to their vote – second only to inflation at 37%.

Of those who identified abortion as the most important issue, 77% backed Warnock, compared to 21% who voted for Walker – a reversal of inflation, an issue that favored Walker by a 45 percentage point margin.

Fifty-three percent of Georgia voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and among those voters, 75% backed Warnock. Of the 43% who said it should be illegal in all or most cases, 87% backed Walker.

Already, both parties have pumped more than $40 million into television advertising in the runoff. Democratic groups have spent nearly $25 million, while GOP groups have spent nearly $16 million, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

In an effort to unite Republican factions, a Walker super PAC is sending out mailers touting Kemp’s support and trying to tie Warnock to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. “You stopped Stacey. Now reject Warnock,” they read.

“Who do you want to fight for you in the United States Senate? Do you want a guy that represents our values like Herschel Walker, or do you want a guy who’s stood with Joe Biden 96% of the time?,” said Kemp, borrowing a familiar attack from Walker, at a rally last weekend in Cobb County.

Kemp also echoes that line of attack in a new television ad launched by SLF. The governor and McConnell’s group have are also linking up for get out the vote efforts. SLF is boosting Kemp’s state operation, which has been pivoted to help Walker, with a $2 million cash injection.

Warnock’s campaign, too, is trying to win over Republicans who effectively chose Kemp over Trump.

A new ad from the Warnock campaign features a woman who says she voted for Kemp this year and describes herself as a lifelong Republican, but goes on to say she won’t support Walker in the runoff because of his “lack of character.”

Warnock has also campaigned on what should be some of Walker’s safest territory: his hometown. At an event in Wrightsville, where Walker played his high school football, Warnock asked voters to separate the sports hero from the political candidate.

“I saw what your favorite son did on the football field. I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due. That brother could razzle dazzle you on that football field. He created a lot of excitement and did a lot for the great University of Georgia. And he deserves credit for that,” Warnock said. “But tonight, we’re on a different field.”

At the same time, the Republican has faced some backlash over an ad of his own – alongside University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has appeared with Walker before and competed with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who became a focus of debate surrounding trans women’s participation in sports and has frequently been attacked in conservative media.

“For more than a decade, I worked so hard. Four a.m. practices to be the best. But my senior year, I was forced to compete against a biological male,” Gaines says in the ad.

The spot was released in the days after a gunman allegedly targeted the LGBTQ community at a gay club in Colorado. One of the five people killed was a trans man.

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Mary Peltola seeks to thwart Sarah Palin as Alaska tabulates ranked choice voting results

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CNN
 — 

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat who won a special election that sent her to Congress this summer, will once again thwart former Gov. Sarah Palin’s bid for a political comeback. CNN projected Wednesday that Peltola will win the race for Alaska’s at-large House seat after the state’s ranked choice voting tabulation, defeating Palin and Republican Nick Begich III.

CNN also projected that Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski will win reelection. She’ll defeat Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Patricia Chesbro. CNN had previously projected that a Republican would hold the seat.

And Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy will win reelection, CNN projected. He defeats Democrat Les Gara and independent Bill Walker. Dunleavy won more than 50% of first choice votes, so ranked choice tabulation was not required.

In Alaska, voters in 2020 approved a switch to a ranked choice voting system. It is in place in 2022 for the first time.

Under the new system, Alaska holds open primaries and voters cast ballots for one candidate of any party, and the top four finishers advance. In the general election, voters rank those four candidates, from their first choice to their fourth choice.

If no candidate tops 50% of the first choice votes, the state then tabulates ranked choice results – dropping the last-place finisher and shifting those votes to voters’ second choices. If, after one round of tabulation, there is still no winner, the third-place finisher is dropped and the same vote-shifting process takes place.

Peltola first won the House seat when a similar scenario played out in the August special election to fill the remaining months of the term of the late Rep. Don Young, a Republican who died in March after representing Alaska in the House for 49 years.

Offering herself as a supporter of abortion rights and a salmon fishing advocate, Peltola emerged as the victor in the August special election after receiving just 40% of the first-place votes. This time, she has a larger share, while Palin’s and Begich’s support has shrunk.

The House race has showcased the unusual alliances in Alaska politics. Though Peltola is a Democrat, she is also close with Palin – whose tenure as governor overlapped with Peltola’s time as a state lawmaker in Juneau. The two have warmly praised each other. Palin has criticized the ranked choice voting system. But she never took aim at Peltola in personal terms.

The Republicans in the race, Palin and Begich, both urged voters to “rank the red” and list the two GOP contenders first and second.

But Peltola had quickly won over many in the state after her special election victory – in part because she has deep relationships with a number of Republicans.

Peltola told CNN in an interview that she and Palin had bonded in Juneau over being new mothers, and that Palin’s family had given Peltola’s family its backyard trampoline when Palin resigned from the governor’s office.

At an Alaska Federation of Natives candidate forum in October, Palin effusively praised Peltola.

“Doggone it, I never have anything to gripe about. I just wish she’d convert on over to the other party. But other than that, love her,” Palin said of Peltola.

Peltola’s family was also close to the family of the late Young. Peltola’s father and Young had taught school together decades ago and were hunting buddies, Peltola said in an interview.

In the race for Alaska’s Senate seat, Murkowski, a moderate Republican, was targeted by former President Donald Trump after she voted to convict him during his impeachment trial in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Murkowski also broke with Trump on a number of key votes during his presidency.

Trump endorsed Tshibaka, and a cadre of former Trump campaign officials worked on her campaign. She was also endorsed by the Alaska Republican Party, which opted to back the more conservative candidate in a state Trump won by 10 percentage points in 2020.

But Murkowski had built a broad coalition in a state where political alliances are often more complicated than they appear. She and Peltola, had publicly said they would rank each other first in their elections.

Chesbro, the Democrat, was among the four candidates who had advanced to the general election. Republican Buzz Kelley also advanced, but dropped out and urged his supporters to vote for Tshibaka.

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Republican Jewish Coalition: GOP elites weigh Trump — and the alternatives — at high-profile Vegas gathering

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CNN
 — 

Former President Donald Trump is set to address the influential Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday, days after becoming the first declared GOP candidate of the 2024 presidential campaign.

But the chandeliered ballroom at the opulent Venetian resort hotel in Las Vegas will teem with his rivals – including potential chief nemesis Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – as some of the party’s most influential donors weigh alternatives to the divisive former president.

Trump still retains a “following” within the party, Mel Sembler, a Florida real-estate developer and GOP donor who sits on the coalition’s board, told CNN this week. But, he said, “I think people are getting tired of his controversies all the time.”

“What concerns me is if he wins the primary and loses the general,” added Sembler, who has not endorsed a 2024 candidate.

The annual leadership conference of prominent Jewish conservatives marks the first major gathering of GOP establishment forces since this month’s midterm letdown for the party, which saw Democrats retain their hold on the Senate and make inroads in state governments around the country.

Republicans did flip the House but will hold a slim majority in January after the “red wave” their party envisioned all year failed to materialize.

Leading Republican figures in Washington and elsewhere are casting blame on Trump for his role in boosting far-right Senate candidates who faltered in the general election – and for continuing to publicly nurse his own grievances about the 2020 election and his ongoing legal troubles. During his campaign kickoff Tuesday, he called himself a “victim” of a federal law enforcement system that he has spent years politicizing.

Trump’s legal difficulties appeared to deepen Friday when Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at his Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Rather than seeing the party unify behind his third presidential bid, Trump faced immediate blowback. Minutes after his announcement, daughter and former senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump distanced herself from her father’s campaign, saying she does “not plan to be involved in politics.”

His announcement also overlapped with a high-profile book tour by his own former vice president – and potential 2024 rival – Mike Pence, who has spent the past several days reminding Americans of Trump’s role in the violent US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Trump’s campaign infrastructure was the swift and public defection of several billionaire GOP donors – including a close ally, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman – who said the country needed leaders “rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday.”

Others are hedging their bets.

Among those playing the field is Miriam Adelson, the billionaire widow of Las Vegas casino magnate and RJC benefactor Sheldon Adelson. The Adelsons have donated nearly a half-billion dollars to Republican groups and candidates in the last four election cycles – including tens of millions to boost Trump’s presidential ambitions, federal records show.

Trump in 2018 bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – on Miriam Adelson, citing her philanthropy.

Despite that relationship, Adelson intends to remain neutral in the GOP presidential primaries, an aide confirmed to CNN this week. Adelson, whose political contributions have slowed some since her husband’s death in January 2021, has indicated that she will financially support the eventual GOP nominee, whether that be Trump or someone else.

RJC executive director Matt Brooks said Trump has won plaudits from coalition members for his stalwart support of Israel during his presidency and unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Still, Brooks said, “people are window-shopping right now. There are people who are asking if we need a new direction and a new face.”

Even as Trump prepares to make his pitch to the RJC, his allies and aides have sought to position him as the outsider in the 2024 contest, despite his recent White House occupancy.

“President Trump is running a campaign that represents everyday Americans who love their country,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to CNN. “There are others who will answer to the political establishment, be beholden to corporations, and drag the United States into more unnecessary wars.”

And his allies note that Trump’s fundraising operation largely relies on a small-dollar donor base, reducing his reliance on the party’s elite and giving him a potential edge over opponents who do not boast the same small-donation game.

He enters the 2024 campaign with more than $100 million in cash reserves across a sprawling network of political committees – although federal law could constrain his ability to fully tap those funds for his campaign.

“He has proven he can raise a lot of money on his own,” Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official who remains close to the former president, recently told CNN.

Trump is not making the trek to Las Vegas but is scheduled to address the gathering live via satellite Saturday as part of a morning lineup that will feature several other potential rivals for the GOP nomination, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, newly reelected New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Trump’s remote appearance was announced on Thursday, after it became clear that several of his potential 2024 rivals were scheduled to deliver their own remarks.

DeSantis – fresh off the momentum of his double-digit reelection victory in Florida – is slated to address the group Saturday night during its gala dinner.

Trump recently has stepped up attacks on DeSantis, and another potential 2024 challenger, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Two sources familiar with Trump’s thinking said part of the reason he has lashed out is because he believes both governors are actively soliciting support from “his donors.” Trump has told aides and allies that DeSantis especially is trying to pitch himself to deep-pocketed Republicans who helped bankroll Trump’s reelection campaign.

A Republican fundraiser in Florida with knowledge of DeSantis’ political operation said, “Of course he’s talking to those people. They’re fair game and every Republican is going to go after those donors because that’s the smart thing to do, it’s not with the mindset, ‘Let’s screw Trump.’”

The conservative Club for Growth, one of the biggest outside spenders in politics, already has broken with Trump and earlier this week circulated internal polling that suggested DeSantis could mount a serious challenge to the former president in early voting states and Florida, where both reside. The group plowed $2 million into DeSantis’ reelection efforts this election cycle, according to Florida campaign filings.

David McIntosh, the former Indiana congressman who runs the group, declined a CNN interview request through a spokesman.

This week, as the contours of the new GOP majority in the House became clear – DeSantis won praise from national Republicans for injecting himself into congressional map-making this year. In a rare move for a governor, DeSantis pushed state lawmakers to adopt his map, which controversially eliminated two districts represented by Black Democrats and gave the GOP the advantage in as many as 20 of 28 districts.

“That map created four new Republican wins,” said a GOP consultant who has been close to Trump and asked not to be named to speak candidly about the 2024 race. “That’s the practical reality of a conservative governor standing up to his own party and saying. ‘We’re not going to cut deals and do things the old way.’”

DeSantis this week sought to sidestep questions about the growing rivalry with Trump, urging people “to chill out a little bit” – even as he touted his 19-point margin of victory in his reelection. CNN has previously reported that those close to DeSantis believe he does not intend to announce his plans before May.

“The smartest thing DeSantis could do is stay out of the fray for as long as possible,” said the Republican consultant. “Don’t stick your face in the frying pan too early.”

Many of Trump’s potential 2024 rivals spoke at the conference in Las Vegas, offering post-midterm assessments and making their pitch for how the party should move forward.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an early ally of Trump, issued a long and passionate indictment of the former president on Saturday, casting Trump as a cancer on the Republican Party and the sole responsible figure for its recent election losses.

“We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said. “The reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.”

Christie slammed Trump for recruiting candidates under the singular qualification that they deny the results of the 2020 election.

“That’s not what this party stands for,” the former governor said. “It’s not what it should stand for in the future, and we’ve got to stop it now.”

Christie pointed to midterm GOP defeats in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and warned that without a resurgence in those states – especially in the suburbs – Republicans held no hope of winning back the White House in 2024.

Echoing those fears, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said that “candidate quality matters,” while adding, “I got a great policy for the Republican Party: Let’s stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in our primaries and start getting behind winners that can close the deal in November.”

Sununu was initially courted to run for US Senate, but ultimately decided to run for reelection. The GOP nominee, retired Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who has pushed falsehoods about the 2020 election, went on to lose to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who headed the Senate GOP’s campaign arm this election cycle, said Republicans’ midterm hopes for a “red wave” did not materialize because the party focused too much on “how bad the Democrats are” and did not offer voters its own policy vision.

“The current strategy of most Republicans in Washington is to only be against the crazy Democrats – and they’re crazy – and never outline any plan what we are for and what we will do. That is a mistake,” the senator said.

Scott’s comments come days after his failed bid to oust Mitch McConnell as the party’s Senate leader.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who unsuccessfully ran for president against Trump in 2016, urged the GOP to try to broaden its appeal outside the party’s base.

“We spend far too much time preaching to the choir; talking to the same 2.6 million people watching Fox News every night,” Cruz said.

Cruz also said he had spoken at Senate Republicans’ leadership election this week to urge the party to take a harder line against Democratic policies.

“Republicans in the Senate don’t fight,” he said Saturday.

Cruz said he urged GOP leaders to “pick two or three or four things that matter and say, ‘We believe in it.’”

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan took a hard stance against the former president Friday night, saying in Las Vegas that the Republican Party was “desperately in need of a course correction.”

“Trump was saying that we’d be winning so much we get tired of winning. Well, I’m sick and tired of our party losing. And after this election last week, I’m even more sick and tired than I was before,” Hogan said.

“Look, this is the third election in a row that we lost and should have won. I say three strikes and you’re out. If you repeatedly lose to a really bad team, it’s time for new leadership,” he added.

This story has been updated with more information.

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