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Election of 2020
A collapse of the GOP threatens to torpedo Donald Trump's prospects for reelection. [19659005] By HOLLY OTTERBEIN
PHILADELPHIA – Republicans are alarmed by the implosion of the GOP in Pennsylvania and worry about re-election prospects of President Donald Trump in a state that has proved essential for his victory in 2016.
Republicans lost three congressional seats and thundering two-figure governor and senator positions – entangled in power struggle r sufficiently disordered to attract the attention of the White House.
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Chaos threatens the president's chances in a state where there is no room for error. Trump, the first Republican presidential candidate to bring the state to power since 1988, has earned less than one point.
"You have to win Pennsylvania to win the presidency," said Republican Rep. Ryan Costello, a rising star from the suburbs of Philadelphia who retired from Congress after just two terms. "And I do not think he's the favorite to defeat a generic democrat."
Since Trump's superb victory in 2016, Republicans in Pennsylvania have received almost exclusively bad news. First, Democrats in the suburbs of Philadelphia toppled the seats in the local elections of 2017 for the first time in decades – and in some cases, in history. Then comes the election year, which begins with the special election victory of Democrat Conor Lamb's House in the middle of Trump Country in western Pennsylvania.
A #MeToo scandal ends the career of a member of Congress . The Pennsylvania Supreme Court detonated the Congress's gerrymandered map and redrawn it for the benefit of Democrats leading Costello to announce that he would not stand for re-election . Then, November 6, 2018.
GOP representative Lou Barletta, who is closely related to the president, lost nearly 700,000 votes in his protest against Democratic Senator Bob Casey. The result in the race for the governor was even worse: the Republican Scott Wagner had lost by more than 800,000 votes.
"These are not just defeats. These were bad defeats, "said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP consultant. "The party must be unified to win in 2020."
This hemorrhage led a faction of Republicans to point fingers at the state party's president: Val DiGiorgio, a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, populated and increasingly democratic. 19659008] "The results of 2018 clearly indicate that leadership needs to be examined – this is no doubt for me," said Bruce Hottle, a member of a state party committee from the West of Pennsylvania, stronghold of Trump.
DiGiorgio is long: it's a bad fundraiser. His staff is anemic. Although he eventually found himself behind Trump in 2016, he had initially supported Florida senator Marco Rubio in the primary. And after a deadly election of the chairman of the state committee in 2017 – DiGiorgio won by only two votes – his critics claim that he did not not reconstituted the party.
"Our position was much better two years ago. A blind man would see that, "said Mike Cibik, a member of the state party committee living in Philadelphia. "There are not enough staff … and they do not collect money."
DiGiorgio's supporters claim he's done everything he could in a devastating year for the country's Republicans and that his critics are just bitter after supporting his opponent in the election of 2017 for the party leader of the state. They also point out that the two state GOP committees reported about the same amount of money in the 2017-18 mid-term cycle as in the 2013-2018 cycle. 2014, although the party has relied more on funding the Republican National Committee this time around. [19659024] Former Vice President Joe Biden "data-size =" promo_xsmall_rectangle "/>
" During the difficult times of this cycle, President Val DiGiorgio was a sure and consistent leader for Republican candidates, "said Republican Joe Scarnati, Acting Speaker of the Senate [19659008] The Trump White House, a long-time player in the fighting between political party leaders, is well aware of the unrest in Pennsylvania.Top Trump's allies are eager to have a strong voice in State party summit in 2020. In Ohio and Michigan – two battlefield states that, like Pennsylvania, have played a crucial role in the Trump election – the president and his allies helped place loyalists in power.The bar of the GOP state committees before the mid-term elections.
But in Pennsylvania, the Trump team presented to the electi in 2017 – and some Republicans now fear that this is a mistake.
In 2016, as part of the Trump campaign, RNC and the state GOP collaborated closely to set up a ground operation for the president. Critics of DiGiorgio fear that the party is not fortified, which could be particularly risky.
"Ground play was important and required resources, human power and money," said Cibik. "We're going to need that again in 2020, and for the moment, I do not feel very good about it."
A source familiar with the Trump campaign, however, dismissed concerns about the topic: "The RNC goes to execute a plan [ground game] through the state party, that Val raises $ 100,000 or $ 100 million. "
The Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania has only $ 94,000, according to reports on the financing of the campaign, nearly a million dollars less than the party the same point Four years ago, the party 's head office increased from 16 in 2014, according to the previous president, to seven. "DiGiorgio said he preferred" we put money on the ground ".
The GOP State also has a separate federal committee, endowed with about $ 320,000, or about $ 50,000 more than it had at the bank four years ago. before.
