The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly
Voter turnout in the recent midterm elections was the second-highest in more than a century, but the spike in ballots went mostly to Democrats, not Republicans. One reason is that there has not been a strong Republican national platform since 2016, so most young voters failed to see compelling reasons to make an effort to vote for Republican candidates.
Many who did get to the polls cast conservative ballots on fundamental issues like transgender and gambling. Despite heavy funding by gambling interests, ballot measures to expand gambling lost statewide in Nebraska, in three Indiana counties, and in both a town and county in Virginia.
Voter ID, which requires some form of identification to cast a ballot, either in person or by mail, passed by 31 points in Ohio, 24 points in Nevada, and 19 points in North Carolina, while failing in Arizona, California, and Colorado. A ballot measure to legalize abortion failed in Idaho, although the pro-abortion side won in Missouri and Virginia.
Voters in several states approved restrictions on transgender lunacy. Nebraska inserted an existing statutory ban on biological males playing in girls’ sports into its constitution, while the pro-transgender side lost in Arizona, too, concerning school sports.
Even in the deep blue states of Colorado and Washington, voters banned the transgender invasion of girls’ sports. After the results were tallied, the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association sent a letter to the Supreme Court suggesting that a pending petition for certiorari was mooted by the initiative known as I-638.
Voters have evidently not become more liberal, but the GOP took them for granted and expected a spending advantage in television ads in the final weeks to make a difference in Texas and other red states. But the ads in Texas ignored young voters by focusing on issues of more concern to the elderly, such as crime, property taxes, and even Social Security taxes.
Expensive ads were aired in Texas against the transgender push, but that was not a high-priority issue for voters there or in other red states this year. Many ads recycled objectionable old comments by a Democrat candidate, which can be fodder for cable television soundbites but do not persuade voters to cast ballots for Republicans.
TV ads are worthless when the Republican Party fails to stand on a strong party platform of principles and values that attract middle-class voters. The GOP was built on a principled platform beginning with its founding in 1854, and needs to return to that approach.
When voters are not given a strong reason to vote Republican, then many of them stay home or vote for Democrats by default. In conservative Tennessee, there was a remarkable 50% decline in the number of votes cast for the Republican Party compared with Trump in 2024.
The losses in Texas, where most voters are conservative, were particularly devastating. Republicans lost every statewide office, even though Democrats had not won any of those offices in more than 30 years, dating back to the early 1990s.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has not debated a political opponent since 2014, and declined to debate again in this campaign cycle. It’s hard to attract young voters to support a 76-year-old candidate who hasn’t defended Republican principles in more than a decade.
Patrick lost by 6 points, and Gov. Greg Abbott lost by 7 points despite both having enormous campaign war chests. Abbott had more than $200 million in donations to re-elect him, and it was all worthless in the end.
School vouchers went down with them. Abbott’s top two priorities were school vouchers for private schools and the senseless Convention of States promoted by a Texas oil billionaire, Tim Dunn.
Texans overwhelmingly rejected an oligarchy that has held power for too long in the Lone Star State. It was a mistake for the Republican Party leadership ever to cede control to billionaires, and a rebuilding of the party there becomes necessary.
The sitting chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court was defeated, as was every incumbent on Austin’s 15th Court of Appeals, all of whom are Republicans. Democrats narrowly retained one Ohio Supreme Court seat, and flipped another.
Republican candidates who campaigned on strong principles and values won despite the blue wave. Pennsylvania Rep. Jeremy Shaffer, who supported local control over data centers while opposing tax breaks and unlimited resource consumption by them, won by 5 points despite the Democrat atop his ballot carrying his district by 19 points.
The nationwide ten-point swing against Republicans did not sink the GOP candidates in Florida, because they had a bigger cushion enabling them to win regardless. Also, Florida candidates like Attorney General James Uthmeier had real accomplishments on which to run, such as his criticisms of and investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci for his mishandling of Covid.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.
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