Heritage Action For America released a post-election survey with gut wrenching analysis as to why the GOP “red wave” fell so far short.
The survey found that Republicans underperformed due to the fact that they lost the independent voters. Another reason was that they failed to offer a clear agenda, and they failed to combat the Democrats abortion messaging. And finally, Republicans did not raise enough finances.
Among those who were independents in the polling, 50% voted for Democrats and 47% voted for Republicans in the much contested Senate elections in the following states: AZ, NV, GA, PA and WI.
In the House, 49% of overall voters chose the Republican candidate, while 46% voted for the Democrat.
A total of 51% of Senate battleground voters disapproved of President Joe Biden and only 4% approved. And republicans received higher approval than Democrats on these issues: the economy, crime and immigration with independents and overall respondents.
But, Heritage Action found that 54% of independents did not agree that President Biden and Democrats’ government spending have been the main causes of high inflation.
There were only 24% of independents who believed spending/inflation was the main GOP campaign message while 23% identified the main GOP message as opposing Biden.
The independent voters were more certain of Democrat messaging. Thirty-seven percent said abortion rights and 30% listed threats to democracy from extremists as the main message in Democratic campaigns.
Heritage Action concluded that despite the advantages in polling, Republicans “offered no plan, no agenda, no hint of what they [would] do. In fact, in the Senate they bragged about not having such a thing.”
“Republicans didn’t see the red wave they expected in the 2022 midterms because they fell short in articulating a complete policy agenda for independent voters. This, coupled with their failure to adequately combat the Left’s dishonest messaging on abortion, led to the disappointing election outcome,” Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson said.
The 2022 midterm elections had all the makings of a red wave, but four key issues held Republicans back, according to GOP pollster Wes Anderson. | @brittybernstein https://t.co/Y0UiflVDvo
— National Review (@NRO) December 20, 2022
