As the Republican Party looks forward to the 2022 midterms where they are expected to reclaim control on the House, NBC is reporting that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are butting heads as they try to figure out what message they want to present to voters.
As NBC's Peter Nicholas wrote, on one side you have McConnell wanting to sit back and criticize Democrats and, on the other, McCarthy believes his members need a message about what the GOP will do if they take control of one or both chambers of Congress.
At issue, as always for the GOP in the past few years, is the path Donald Trump has set for the party before losing re-election in 2020.
"Beneath the dueling approach to the midterms lies a more basic question about the party’s direction. Donald Trump first ran for office promising a sharp break from party orthodoxy. He questioned the merits of free trade and called for withdrawing U.S. forces from prolonged Middle East wars," he wrote. "As his presidency wound down, the party devolved into more of a vehicle for Trump to air grievances and punish foes. A candidate eager for Trump’s endorsement in the GOP primaries now stands a better chance by showing fealty to him rather than committing to a set of principles."
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According to pollster Frank Luntz, long associated with GOP messaging, "McConnell, I assume, is hoping that anger with Democrats will carry his members over the finish line,” before adding, "I know from the work I’ve done dating back to 1994 that it’s not enough to be the opposition party. You have to give people a reason to vote for you or they stay home.”
To put the battle into perspective, Nicholas reported, "The calculation Senate Republican leaders appear to have made is that any proposals they put forward might divert attention from Biden’s troubles. How much to emphasize substance versus personal attacks is a perennial question. In the 2018 midterms, Democrats recaptured the House by keeping a sharp focus on health care — not Trump. Rather than follow that model, Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the Virginia governor’s race last year through a failed attempt to make the election in some ways a referendum on Trump."
According to Sen. John Thune, (R-SD), “You don’t want to make yourself the issue. … I think right now they [Democrats] are a target-rich environment. They’re just giving us a lot of stuff to shoot at.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy and his lieutenants are lining up a slate of proposals they want to run on -- many of them based on launching investigations of Democrats and President Joe Biden, and the California Republican is also looking over his shoulder should Republican House gains not match up to expectations.
"McCarthy’s grip on the House Republican caucus hinges on Trump, and he risks losing the speaker’s race to a further-right rival should he run afoul of the ex-president. If the conservative House Freedom Caucus expands its ranks in the midterms, McCarthy could face a serious challenge from Trump loyalists who see him as too moderate," the report states before adding, "It may be no accident that the policies that he and his GOP colleagues are devising are, in important respects, protective of Trump’s interests and responsive to his peeves. Should it gain subpoena power, a House GOP majority is likely to use it to try to weaken Democrats in the run-up to 2024, when Trump may again be on the ballot."
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