Toomey points to Trump for GOP losses in midterms

Nov. 13—Outgoing U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey this week placed blame for the Republican Party's midterm election failures squarely on the shoulders of former President Donald Trump.

And despite Toomey and many other Republican leaders agreeing that Trump is to blame for the less-than-red wave last Tuesday, Trump apparently remains determined to take another run at the White House in 2024. The former President is scheduled to announce his candidacy on Tuesday.

What that will mean to the future of the GOP remains to be seen, but Sen. Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, left no doubt on how he feels about the situation in interviews with major media outlets in the days following the midterms.

In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Toomey, who twice won election in Pennsylvania in 2010 and 2016, said Trump created political problems for Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who tried to distance himself from the former president's claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread fraud.

"President Trump had to insert himself and that changed the nature of the race and that created just too much of an obstacle," Toomey said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

"And by the way, it's not just Pennsylvania. You look all over the country, there's a very high correlation between MAGA candidates and big losses, or at least dramatically under-performing," he added, referring to Trump's slogan: Make America Great Again.

On CNN, Toomey predicted that the poor performance of Trump-backed candidates, especially those who embraced his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, will "accelerate" the former president's loss of influence in the party.

"So here's my theory on the case, is that there is not going to be one discrete moment at which the fever breaks and Donald Trump becomes irrelevant," Toomey said on CNN. "That's not likely to happen. What I think is: his influence wanes."

Toomey went on to tell Burnett, "And a debacle like we had Tuesday night, from a Republican point of view, accelerates the pace at which that influence wanes."

Toomey then highlighted what he called "interesting data points" showing that Trump's popularity in the party isn't what it was even a year ago.

"A year or two ago, if you ask Republican voters — 'Do they consider themselves more traditional Republicans or Donald Trump Republicans?' — he had a huge lead," Toomey said on CNN. "That has flipped. And that's telling, I think. I think that's going to continue."

Toomey was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in February of 2021 on the impeachment charge that he incited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we're probably not gonna do really well," he said on CNN. "All over the country there's a very high correlation between MAGA candidates and big losses or at least dramatically under-performing."

Philadelphia Inquirer interview

In a post-election interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Toomey is quoted as saying: "Last night across the country was a terrible night for Trump. The more MAGA a candidate was, the more they tended to under-perform even in their own states."

Trump-backed Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano lost by double digits to Democrat Josh Shapiro.

In the Inquirer story written by Jonathan Tamari, Toomey said former President Donald Trump bears significant blame for the "debacle" Tuesday that left the GOP struggling to capitalize on Democratic weakness in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and urged his party to move away from Trump's influence.

Toomey predicted that the GOP's massive failures in Pennsylvania, and shortcomings elsewhere, would diminish Trump's standing while elevating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"Last night across the country was a terrible night for Donald Trump, and an excellent night for Gov. DeSantis," Toomey told the Inquirer. "The more MAGA a candidate was, the more they tended to under-perform even in their own states."

In the Inquirer story, Toomey blamed Trump for elevating GOP nominees who mimicked the former president, and then struggled to win despite record high inflation, low approval ratings for President Joe Biden and worries about crime.

Toomey praised one Trump-endorsed nominee, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.

"The party needs to recognize the facts on the ground," Toomey told the Inquirer. "Like I said, when the primary criteria is allegiance to Donald Trump, the outcomes weren't very good."

Toomey, a staunch fiscal conservative, said the entire Republican ticket was weighed down by Mastriano, the gubernatorial candidate who rose to prominence as a Trump acolyte and lost Tuesday to Democrat Josh Shapiro by double digits.

"Mastriano's loss was on an epic scale, and it is very hard for down-ballot candidates to overcome that," Toomey told the Inquirer.

As Mastriano struggled, Republicans lost every major race in Pennsylvania, including the critical U.S. Senate contest and three competitive U.S. House races — and may have lost control of the state House for the first time in more than a decade.

The Inquirer reported that Toomey, who declined to seek reelection this year, supported Trump for president in 2016 and 2020, and voted for most of the former president's policies. But he broke sharply with Trump when the former president tried to overthrow the 2020 election results, and the senator voted to convict in Trump's second impeachment trial.

As for who might emerge as the new center of gravity for the GOP, Toomey told the Inquirer that DeSantis looks like one early option.

"Right now Gov. DeSantis is looking like a Republican's dream: Enormously successful governor, enormously popular, he won by 19 points in a state that we used to assume was extremely competitive," Toomey said. "He's got all the strengths without the baggage."

"I think it's very, very possible that if he runs, he won't end up being the nominee, but he certainly does start off as a front-runner," Toomey told the Inquirer.

But he argued that Trump's behavior after the 2020 election "disqualifies" him from holding any office.

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.