Republican strategist Stuart Stevens on Friday said that Republicans should be panicking about the optics of the new Democratic House majority if they aren't already.
In particular, Stevens said that the large numbers of women, young people and people of color in the new Democratic majority contrasted poorly with the Republican minority, which was almost uniformly whiter and older.
"The visuals of new House should send a shiver through anyone who cares about future of [the Republican] Party," Stevens wrote. "One side looks like America and our future, the other looks like Board meeting of [a] 1950’s corporation. A basic law of politics: be for the future not [the] past. There’s more of it."
Stevens went on to point out that Republicans before the mid-1960s routinely won sizable minorities of black voters -- until Barry Goldwater made attacks on civil rights legislation a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.
"Republican presidential candidates routinely got 30-35% of black vote before 1964," he wrote. "Then fell of a cliff. Why? Civil Rights. Actions have consequences. The Trump led vitriol against Mexicans & brown people is not likely to be forgotten anytime soon."
Stevens also pointed out that Republican Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland both easily won their reelection bids despite running in deep-blue states.
"But instead of studying and learning from their success, national R Party basically ignores them," he wrote. "Crazy."
