Fed-up MAGA insurgents plot to bury GOP’s old guard: ‘Old ideas are for old people’

A new group of hard-right Republicans thinks their party is too old, too moderate and too weak, and it’s launching an effort to push out the outgoing generation of GOP lawmakers in favor of younger America First loyalists.

American Ascent, a 501(c)(4) launching this week, aims to build a bench of young conservatives who could take the dozens of congressional seats that will be held by aging lawmakers in 2028, reported Politico.

“We watched a complete rebuke of the type of Republicans that were in Congress. Old ideas are for old people,” said Jackson Hines, the group’s vice president, who is also the nephew and former bodyman of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The group will be run by Ryan Neuhaus, the former Heritage Foundation chief of staff who took the blame last year for Kevin Roberts’ video defending Tucker Carlson after the podcaster’s friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

“For too long, the Republican Party has relied on rerunning candidates over and over again,” Neuhaus said.

Asked whether the group’s recruits would challenge sitting Republicans in primaries, Neuhaus sidestepped the question. “That’s up to them,” he said. “But I’ll prepare any young and able and competent American to run for higher office.”

The group has compiled data on the best opportunities to flip House, Senate and governors’ seats in 2028, based on factors like a candidate’s age, whether they plan to seek reelection, and their fundraising history. A PAC led by longtime Trump Jr. aide Andy Surabian, which helped defeat anti-redistricting Republicans in Indiana’s statehouse this year, will work closely with the effort.

The project is backed by an initial $12 million from GOP megadonor Thomas Klingenstein, the septuagenarian chair of the Claremont Institute’s board, who has long warned of a “cold civil war” in America.

“Our statesmen must understand in such a situation reaching across the aisle is a sucker’s game,” Klingenstein said.

The group’s leaders argue last week’s losses show the GOP needs to go harder on its populist agenda, not soften it. Noah Wall, whose State Leadership Initiative will help scout candidates, called the midterms “a cataclysmic loss for Republicans.”

The data shows a steep climb, as voters ages 18 to 29 backed Democrats 70 percent to 28 percent, a 33-point shift from 2024, according to The New York Times. Latino voters also swung sharply toward Democrats.

Still, the group insists immigration isn’t the problem.

“Republicans lost on the economy. They did not lose on the immigration agenda,” said Bradley Devlin, who will lead the group’s communications. That claim runs into a September Politico poll that found nearly one-third of non-MAGA Republicans said Trump’s deportation push has been “too aggressive.”