Once-mighty state GOPs in shambles after Trump's path of destruction: analysis

President Donald Trump has spent a decade turning Republican state parties into vehicles for his own loyalty, and in three former GOP strongholds the bill is coming due, according to a new analysis.

The clearest sign came this week at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where Trump openly conceded that Democrat Roy Cooper is “going to become your senator and it’s crazy," which MS NOW's Eric Garcia highlighted as a brutal admission for Republican Michael Whatley.

Trump made the former North Carolina GOP chair head of the Republican National Committee, but Whatley trails Cooper by more than 10 points on average.

North Carolina Republicans were riding high a decade ago, having taken both legislative chambers in 2010 for the first time since 1898. Then Trump backed Mark Robinson for governor in 2024, but he lost by almost 15 points, dragging down the GOP’s candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general and costing Republicans their legislative supermajority and a state supreme court seat.

Trump then split with Sen. Thom Tillis over Medicaid cuts, forcing his retirement, and filled the state party with loyalists.

Georgia tells a similar story. Trump turned on Gov. Brian Kemp, who now enjoys a 70 percent approval rating, after Kemp refused to help overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s pick of Herschel Walker handed Democrat Raphael Warnock another Senate term, and this year, Trump boosted Rep. Mike Collins over a Kemp-backed rival, and now Sen. Jon Ossoff is “running away with the race.”

Tellingly, the one Georgia Republican running strong statewide is Rick Jackson, a self-funded businessman who beat Trump’s preferred candidate for governor.

Arizona, the home of Barry Goldwater, shows where the trend leads. No Republican has won a Senate seat there since Trump nemesis John McCain in 2016. Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs, who tried to challenge the 2020 election results, trails Gov. Katie Hobbs decisively. Democrats could also flip up to three House seats and both legislative chambers for the first time in 60 years.

Trump has “displayed a remarkable ability to survive and win elections,” Garcia noted, but his acolytes keep losing down the ballot.

“Trump has turned the Republican Party that cares about electing like-minded individuals into a party meant to support him, and him alone,” Garcia concluded. “In doing so, it has lost its ability to save itself.”