Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, has a stark warning for the GOP: if the party continues losing elections in America's suburbs, Republicans will be in serious danger, The Washington Examiner reported.
“We’ve got to be worried about what’s happening in the suburbs. We get wiped out in the Dallas suburbs, Houston suburbs, Chicago suburbs, Denver suburbs — you know there’s a pattern — Detroit suburbs, Minneapolis suburbs, Orange County, Calif., suburbs,” Rove said Saturday during a panel discussion for the Washington Examiner’s Sea Island Summit. “When we start to lose in the suburbs, it says something to us. We can’t replace all of those people by simply picking up [Minnesota’s First Congressional District] — farm country and the Iron range of Minnesota — because, frankly, there’s more growth in suburban areas than there is in rural areas.”
Rove was referencing the five hotly contested congressional races in California, where Democrats hoped to gain a stronghold.
“We’ve got to examine the reasons why we lost and figure out how to fix those problems going forward,” Rove said. “Problematically, the purple places, with the exception of Florida, didn’t go blue, but they got bluer.”
Rove isn't the only one who had similar feelings about the GOP's loss on Election Day. Shoshana Weissmann, the founder of CityGOP, shared a Twitter thread explaining why it's important for the Republican Party to pay attention to what's happening in the city and suburbs:
Beating the drum again - but Cruz's race was WAY tighter than it ought to have been. And the map tells at least one obvious story.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
Republicans need to try in cities, or, as I've been saying for years, Texas WILL be purple one day. pic.twitter.com/mYh7Zi28GI
There is data showing that the vote flips R to D at 800ppl/square mile. Texas is growing. States are growing. America is. Cities are a good thing. They mean growth. And they need competitive leadership and free market solutions.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
Republicans straight up ignore cities - Dems have a similar issue with rural. But lucky for them, rural areas are shrinking and cities are growing. @jillhoman and I founded @CityGOP as a side project 5 years ago to figure out the problem and solutions.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
The answer REALLY isn't that scary: 1) Show up in cities (literally just show up at all. Show up again. Get to know all parts of the communities). 2) Show you care. 3) Show solutions. It makes a HUGE difference.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
But Republicans keep not doing this, and Texas shows what's going to happen to red states as they continue to ignore it. I'm far less a GOP party animal than I once was, but competitive leadership is healthy, and when there isn't competition, localities suffer.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
I've been saying for YEARS - Texas can turn purple... and one day blue. Unless Republicans actually start to focus on cities with free market solutions. And I'd be cool if any Dems wana hit me up for free marked advice too!
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
But urban conservatism doesn't mean abandoning values. It means APPLYING them. To the places where people are.
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018
In the meantime, watch as Republicans ignore cities, and voting maps keep becoming population density maps. Remember, it flips at 800 people/sq mile. pic.twitter.com/jl3OeBzyLE
DM me to connect on this stuff. But yeah /end
— Shoshana Weissmann, Regulatory Reform Muse (@senatorshoshana) November 7, 2018