Republican strategist Evan Siegfried tore into Donald Trump for celebrating the results of the 2018 midterms, saying the president is ignoring the disaster that awaits him and his party in 2020.
According to Siegfried, Tuesday’s results show that the president has lost millennials, voters in suburbs and big cities and women. If that holds up in two years, Trump won’t be able to win his re-election bid.
“We have Donald Trump going out Wednesday morning and celebrating the victories that the Republicans, the red wave we had,” Siegfried said. “It’s like him going out and celebrating the Titanic for having a few people survive. It was an all-out disaster.”
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Siegfried said:
We have Donald Trump going out Wednesday morning and celebrating the victories that the Republicans, the red wave we had. It’s like him going out and celebrating the Titanic for having a few people survive. It was an all-out disaster. Republicans saw losses across every level, right down to the state and local level. Democrats picked up over 300 state legislative seats, six trifectas, meaning the governorship and both chambers in a state legislature. We lost 7 governorships. This is a disaster of epic proportions. Fueling that, young voters and millennials, who normally don’t vote. In 2014, 19% of eligible young voters voted, and that really didn’t help and they only voted plus 11 for Democratic candidates. In 2018, that increased 56% to 31% of registered young voters voting and they voted predominantly for Democratic candidates. And they went Democrat plus 35.
GOP struggles with key voting blocs will only worsen in 2020
Republicans typically overperform in midterm years because they’re favorite voting blocs tend to turn out at a higher rate than those friendly to Democrats.
In 2018, though, many voting blocs that stay home in off years – millennials, in particular – turned out in large numbers to repudiate the president.
In 2020, when Trump is actually on the ballot, it’s likely that these same voters that were key to this year’s blue wave will turn out in even higher numbers.
If they do, it will be a disaster for Trump, who is increasingly turning the GOP into a party that can only compete in rural parts of the country.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
