The Republican Party has held a majority in all three branches of the federal government and in most statehouses, and yet has broken records for inactivity. The House has spent most of this year not in session, while the Supreme Court hears less than half the cases it did a few decades ago.
The House adjourned early in its final session before the midterms, apparently to avert an impeachment of War Secretary Pete Hegseth. But the House must reconvene next week to begin considering essential end-of-year bills, so disappearing before the midterms in order to give Hegseth six more weeks in office seemed hardly worth it.
Meanwhile, Democrats are showing up in record numbers for early voting. Nearly 59 million votes were cast prior to Election Day, mostly by Dems, exceeding the surge that occurred in the 2018 midterms, and probably exceeding the ballots to be cast on Election Day this year.
Republican candidates have not been showing up for debates and town halls, as statewide Republicans in Texas and Florida refused to debate. In the past, Republicans like Ronald Reagan had always welcomed opportunities to present their principles and values to voters, but unfortunately voters have not been able to hear from many GOP candidates this time.
In gubernatorial races nationwide, 21 of the 36 races lacked televised debates. Many of these Republicans in deep red states will win anyway, but their margins of victory are smaller than they should be, and down-ballot candidates or those in swing states are falling short.
And when the Republican candidate did attend a debate, as in Michigan for its open U.S. Senate seat, the Republican focused more on personally attacking his opponent than on advocating for policies as his opponent did. Voters were left by these debates with too little information about what the Republican candidate stands for.
It is a mistake for Republicans to take for granted that Gen Z, who are the young swing voters deciding elections today, know the positions and values of the GOP. They were not born yet when Ronald Reagan was president, and have little recollection of the disastrous domestic policies of Democrat President Barack Obama.
The Republican Party has not tried hard enough to reach these young voters who are the swing vote in elections. These voters do not watch or like cable news shows, and are not influenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into political advertising in the last few weeks.
Hegseth unnecessarily alienated Gen Z with his plan to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood murderer, which seemed like a stunt to one-up the liberal media. One major poll showed that 80% of Americans opposed livestreaming the execution, and a big majority of Gen Z dislikes capital punishment anyway.
Too much of the policymaking seems designed to defy liberals rather than appeal to young voters. Getting grocery prices or health insurance premiums lower for young workers would have helped in this election, rather than trying to outdo the Left on cable television.
The cable news style of personally disparaging an opponent has not played well with Gen Z. The tactic of trying to dredge up old, anonymous social media posts and linking them to the Democrat candidate has been a failure in attracting young voters.
A hope existed among Republican candidates that big money, which arrived late in the game from Elon Musk, would rescue the GOP. But most voters had made up their minds before the big donations to PACs arrived, and the independent ads seemed geared more to elderly Fox News viewers than to Gen Z.
Republican consultants, not candidates, are the ones who benefit most from independent expenditures. Democrats wisely channeled their donations directly to candidates, who know how best to spend it while benefiting from preferential ad rates not available for independent expenditures.
Lawsuits by Republicans have been ineffective, too. Over the weekend, a federal judge dismissed a Republican lawsuit in Alaska seeking to block certification of the result there if the incumbent Dan Sullivan loses due to the other Dan Sullivan who was recruited by the Democrats to confuse.
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied an application by the Trump Administration in appeal of a ruling against its lawsuit to segregate ballots possibly cast by noncitizens in California. That state has an illegal alien population estimated to be 3 million, and Democrats there have failed to clean its election rolls while courts look the other way.
Republican candidates have been defiant toward the liberal media, as is appropriate, but too often come across as defiant toward young voters as well. The GOP attracted young voters in order to win in 2024, and needs to bring them back by reaching out to them in a positive way.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
