The future of the US Republican Party

In-conversation with Republican strategist Sarah Longwell on the future of the Republican Party post-Trump. It was an informative dialogue that highlighted how significantly the Georgia Senate elections and the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol have impacted the GOP with three main takeaways: 

• The events of the past week in the United States have fundamentally changed the trajectory for President Trump and his supporters within the Republican Party. Republican strategist Sarah Longwell predicted that there will be a more serious rift in the GOP between nationalists and populists who want to continue Trump’s style of governing and the establishment wing.
• The next two weeks will reveal the future of the Republican party and how far the GOP is willing to go to diminish Trump’s influence in the future. While it is likely that Trump will be impeached a second time by the Democratic House, it is less clear whether the Senate will move to actually convict him. Regardless, Trump is going to face a wide swath of legal challenges that will impact his ability to wield influence.  
• Despite the outcome of the election, Trump drove increased Republican turnout. Going forward, Republican lawmakers will need to shift their tactics in order to pick up support among these Trump backers by focusing less on rhetoric and more on meeting the policy-needs of the electorate.

We also discussed a range of other interesting topics, including:

• The impact of split-ticket voting in the November election and the preference of the American electorate for divided government.
• How Trump’s attempted coercion of Georgian officials to change outcome of the election affected the Senate runoff races.
• The political future of Trump acolytes such as Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley after their efforts to overturn the results of the election.
• How Republicans will handle their new role governing as the minority party.