J.D. Vance Says Blaming Trump for GOP Failure Poses 'Distraction'

J.D. Vance, Ohio's newest senator-elect, is urging his fellow Republicans to not blame former President Donald Trump for the disappointing midterm results and instead wants his party to work on the "actual issues" that the elections exposed.

Vance wrote an opinion piece for the American Conservative on Monday, addressing GOP leadership that have pointed a finger at Trump after several of his MAGA-backed endorsements failed to deliver a "red wave" on election night last week.

In the article, Vance said that while "no man is above criticism," the former president's involvement in the midterm elections is not the reason that Republicans suffered losses across the country.

"Any effort to pin blame on Trump, and not on money and turnout, isn't just wrong," Vance said. "It distracts from the actual issues we need to solve as a party over the long term."

The Ohio businessman argued that one of the reasons Democrats outperformed in key races was due to small-donor funds, or donations worth $200 or less. Vance said that Republicans' small-donor efforts are "paltry" compared to the money Democrats raise on sites like ActBlue, and also pointed to structural problems within the GOP, such as the fact that white, suburban voters are voting "more and more Democratic."

"Any autopsy of Republican underperformance ought to focus on how to close the national money gap, and how to turn out less engaged Republicans during midterm elections," Vance said. "These are the problems we have, and rather than blaming everyone else, it's time for party leaders to admit we have these problems and work to solve them."

According to a July report from Axios, Democrats were at one point leading their Republican opponents in small-donor funding by over $75 million across 10 of the most competitive Senate races.

The biggest gap between the parties was in Arizona, where Senator Mark Kelly, who won reelection last week, had raised nearly $23 million from small donors at the time. Axios reports that Kelly's GOP challenger Blake Masters, along with potential GOP candidates Jim Lamon and Mark Brnovich who lost in the Arizona primary, had brought in less than $2 million in small donations combined.

Vance offered two suggestions on combating the structural problems for the GOP: voting reform to ensure safe elections, and working to "build a turnout machine" for the future.

"Our party has one major asset, contra conventional wisdom, to rally these voters: President Donald Trump," Vance wrote. "Now, more than ever, our party needs President Trump's leadership to turn these voters out and suffers for his absence from the stage."

Vance's campaign benefited greatly from the former president's endorsement, helping him beat out well-established Republicans during the Ohio primaries in the spring. Trump also chose Vance as his final campaign stop prior to midterm voting last week.

But contrary to Vance's argument that Trump is an asset for the GOP to rally voters, exit polling conducted by Edison Research for NBC News found that Trump could have actually been a motivator for Democrats this fall. While 32 percent of voters said they were voting "to oppose Joe Biden," 28 percent of voters indicated they were voting "to oppose Donald Trump," even though Trump wasn't on the ballot.

Republicans also appear to have lost the independent vote in this year's election, breaking from tradition in the past four midterms where independent voters sided with the party in opposition to the White House. According to NBC's report, independents favored Democrats last week 49 percent to 47 percent.

While the GOP fights among itself over Trump's future role in the party, especially as he is expected to announce his presidential bid for 2024 on Tuesday, the former president blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for last week's disappointment.

"It's Mitch McConnell's fault ... He blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!" Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday.

Newsweek has reached out to the Republican National Committee for comment.