The right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial page is warning Republicans against dismissing more troubling election results that resulted in the party losing mayor's offices in GOP strongholds including Jacksonville, Florida and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"Three times in a row, since 2018, Republicans have been disappointed on election night in November, in large part because they lost the suburbs," the editorial begins. "More defeats Tuesday for the GOP in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Florida suggest the erosion is continuing."
The editors place the blame for the party's losses primarily on two factors: Its hardline stance on abortion rights and its continued embrace of former President Donald Trump.
On the abortion front, they note that Pennsylvania Democrat Heather Boyd used the issue to win her swing district with 60 percent of the vote, a margin that they said would make it impossible for Republicans to win Pennsylvania if it holds up in 2024.
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They also noted the continued failure of pro-Trump election-denying candidates, such as Judge Patricia McCullough, who this week lost the GOP primary for a state Supreme Court seat in a campaign where she ran on her efforts to derail certification of the 2020 election in the state.
"Electability matters," they argued. "That means giving up Mr. Trump’s 2020 conspiracy theories, looking to the future, and finding an abortion compromise that Republicans can sell to the voters they used to take for granted."
