'He needs to go': Pennsylvania Republicans blame Trump for their midterms humiliations

When the results of the 2022 midterms started to come in on Tuesday night, November 8, it was obvious how much of a swing state Pennsylvania continues to be. Democratic Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro enjoyed a double-digit victory of 12 percent over his MAGA Republican opponent, State Sen. Doug Mastriano — a far-right conspiracy theorist, QAnon ally, Christian nationalist and election denier. Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race was much closer, but in the end, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman pulled off a narrow victory over Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz.

In 2023, Pennsylvania will still have a Democratic governor — with Shapiro replacing the term-limited Gov. Tom Wolf — and two Democratic U.S. senators: the liberal/progressive Fetterman and the three-term centrist Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. Democrats flipped a Senate seat that has been mostly in Republican hands for decades — one that is presently occupied by arch-conservative Sen. Pat Toomey (who didn’t seek reelection) and was held by the late Sen. Arlen Specter for many years before that. Specter became a Democrat near the end of his life, but he spent most of his political career as a moderate Republican and held that Senate seat from January 1981-January 2011.

Pennsylvania Republicans are not happy about the way things played out in the Keystone State in the 2022 midterms, and according to reporting in the Philadelphia Inquirer, some of them are pointing the finger at former President Donald Trump — who endorsed and campaigned for Mastriano and Oz.

READ MORE:Here are 5 of the GOP’s biggest 2022 midterms disappointments

In an article published by the Inquirer on November 10, reporters Jonathan Tamari and William Bender explain, “Two days after a series of stinging defeats in Pennsylvania, some Republicans in the state focused their ire on the man who has long stood at the center of their party: Donald Trump.”

Matthew Brouillette, who heads the Pennsylvania-based conservative group Commonwealth Partners, is among the people on the right who is openly expressing his frustration with Trump.

Brouillette told the Inquirer, “If anything should be taken away from this election, it’s that we should be over Trump. If you’re not a Never Trumper yet, you should be an Over-Trumper now. He had his moment in the sun for four years, and it’s time for him to retire from politics.”

Another Pennsylvania conservative who is speaking out is Josh Novotney. According to Tamari and Bender, the Philadelphia-based GOP operative “said there’s been widespread blame on Trump within GOP circles after the party lost marquee races for governor and U.S. Senate, all three of the state’s competitive U.S. House races, and possibly the State House. Trump’s presence, several Republican leaders said, continues to motivate Democrats, and his endorsements have elevated flawed candidates who fit his personal piques.”

READ MORE: Why reviews of Fetterman’s debate performance were 'oddly disconnected' from Americans’ experience with illness in office

Novotney told the Inquirer, “I’ve even heard in very Trump parts of the city and the state that he is an albatross, he is hurting us, and he needs to go. We can’t win races if he continues to be the head of the party.”

Andy Reilly, the GOP’s national committeeman in Pennsylvania, is acknowledging that when Trump visited the Keystone State the weekend before Election Day and campaigned for Mastriano and Oz, the beneficiaries were Shapiro and Fetterman.

Reilly told the Inquirer, “His presence, I think, helped the Democrats’ claims about a threat to democracy. It was not constructive for the president to be hinting about his announcement.”

Toomey is another Pennsylvania Republican who is lashing out at Trump following the GOP’s disappointments in his state. The outgoing right-wing senator, who infuriated MAGA Republicans when he voted “guilty” in Trump’s second impeachment trial, spoke candidly during a November 10 appearance on CNN — admitting that Trump brought the GOP nothing but misfortune in Pennsylvania this year.

When CNN’s Erin Burnett noted that Pennsylvania Republicans had lost “three U.S. House races, a gubernatorial race and a Senate seat,” Toomey pointed out that the news was even worse.

Toomey told Burnett, “You need to add to that control of the (Pennsylvania) General Assembly in our state capitol in Harrisburg. We’re probably going to lose control of the State House, which Republicans have had for some time. So yeah, this is a huge problem, and I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria to selecting candidates, we’re probably not going to do really well.”

Watch Toomey’s CNN appearance below or at this link.

READ MORE: Donald Trump is 'indeed furious' about Mehmet Oz’s defeat and is blaming Melania: reporter