Abstract

Donald Trump’s loss in conjunction with the outcome of congressional elections has left the Republican Party entirely removed from the political levers of power in Washington, D .C . - a mere four years after they had obtained unified control of government at the federal level. What are the lessons Republicans can draw from these results? How can a President who engaged in open efforts to overturn a democratic election result continue to elicit a degree of support among the party’s rank-and-file that has made him the current favorite to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024? Explanations are found both in the 45th President’s governing record as well as in the composition of today’s Republican electorate, which largely subscribes to Donald Trump’s nativist populist worldview. The attitudes present among Republican voters were one of the key reasons why most Republican officials in Washington ultimately decided to at least tacitly support Trump’s anti-democratic lie of a “stolen election”. This may only have been a harbinger of the future threat Republicans pose to US democracy.

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