The Republican Party cannot blame the media's positive reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris for the downturn in their fortunes, wrote National Review executive editor Mark Antonio Wright. Rather, their problem begins with the fact that they "picked a bad candidate" to lead the ticket.
The National Review is one of the nation's most prominent conservative publications, and has stood by Republicans for decades — but in recent years, many of its authors have expressed queasiness with former President Donald Trump.
"The reason why the Republican Party is, at the moment, on track to lose the 2024 election is that the Republican Party is a minority coalition that picked a very unpopular 78-year-old retread as its candidate," wrote Wright. "Trump's weakness only remained hidden for much of this year because President Joe Biden was struggling with his campaign, and voters desperately wanted an alternative to redoing the 2020 election. And now they have one."
"Is Harris an ideal candidate? Is she an incredibly talented orator? Is she deft on her feet and nimble in debate? Is she a famous wonk? Does she have a long track record of competence at the state and federal level? Has she been scrutinized by a tough no-nonsense press and come out stronger on the other side?" wrote Wright. "No, of course not — but she’s an alternative to Trump/Biden, and that’s probably going to be enough."
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And the media fluff pieces about her are not going to decide any elections, he added — they are simply reflections of the mood the public is already in.
"The GOP electoral coalition is the smaller, weaker coalition. It’s lost the popular vote seven out of nine times in my lifetime (I’m 36). It has lost the Electoral College three out of the last four cycles. Conservatives might not be very eager to hear this, but 'We the People' are mostly Democrats," Wright continued.
Republicans can still win despite this, he added, but so far the only times that has happened is when they nominated outsiders — and Trump is now the last thing from an outsider you could imagine.
"Trump isn’t losing because Kamala Harris is being hyped by the press and fluffed up to kingdom come. He isn’t losing because the press is being unfair to him. He’s losing because he’s a weak, unpopular, undisciplined candidate running at the head of a weak, minority electoral coalition. That’s the truth, whether anyone wants to hear it or not," Wright concluded.
All that remains, he said, is for Republicans to "stop whining" and try to create a stronger coalition — which so far there is no indication they are trying to do.
