With the New York Republican Party’s losing campaign against Democrats now over, prominent members of the GOP are turning on each other, including Bruce Blakeman and retiring Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Blakeman ran a “low energy campaign with limited resources that lacked an apparatus,” Stefanik told the New York Post.
Blakeman responded on social media, calling Stefanik a “selfish, do-nothing politician that didn’t lift a finger to help Republican candidates in New York.”
But some Republicans are looking beyond the finger-pointing and score-settling to figure out the party’s future.
First, they say, comes introspection.
“We really need to come up with a message that resonates with the public, and that really means taking a beat and figuring it out and doing so dispassionately,” said David Carr.
There are also calls from some grassroots organizers for 80-year-old New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox to step down.
Cox responded in a statement, saying, “This is not the time for accusations or a circular firing squad. It’s a time for Republicans to regroup, come together and develop a strategy for moving forward, building upon the foundation of the six House seats that Republicans continue to hold.”
Stefano Forte, leader of the New York Young Republican Club, which is part of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, said he believes the Cox era is over.
Forte said he wants the Republican Party to embrace right-wing populism and a blue-collar approach. He also said the state party needs to work more closely with grassroots organizations like his.
“Why wasn’t there a coherent grassroots door-knocking operation where we can rely on one another and communicate with one another?” he said. “Many of the candidates were telling me that, ‘Bruce Blakeman comes into my district — doesn’t even tell me — comes in, makes a speech and then his security is pushing his supporters aside as he has to get back to his escalade.’”
Meanwhile, Ken Girardin of the conservative Manhattan Institute co-authored a piece in City Journal titled “New York’s GOP Doesn’t Have Answers.”
His advice for Republicans: Study the state’s problems and develop better ways to sell voters on solutions.
“In a good party apparatus, the candidate is able to take the party’s ideas and run with them. Bruce Blakeman got the keys to the car, and there was no intellectual gas in the tank,” Girardin said.
There are also calls for defeated Rep. Mike Lawler to take over the state party. A source said Lawler has heard those calls, but no decision has been made about his future beyond spending time with his young family.
