excerpts:
“Trump may well cost us the Arizona seat by his actions,” said longtime Republican strategist Scott Reed. “It doesn’t help the cause when you take an A-player like [Arizona Gov. Doug] Ducey off the field. Forget what he says about McConnell and these other people, I’m just doing basic math on how we’re ever going to win the majority and that does go through Arizona.”
In Arizona, Trump effectively blocked Ducey, the Republican governor, from running for U.S. Senate in 2022, after Ducey certified Arizona’s election results. Ducey, a two term governor and chair of the Republican Governors Association, supported Trump’s presidency but then found himself in the former president’s crosshairs when he distanced himself from the partisan election audit in Maricopa County, which Trump obsessed over.
“He wanted a certain outcome, and rather than taking responsibility for that outcome he pointed his fingers at other people,” said Kirk Adams, Ducey’s former chief of staff. “Donald Trump should have won Arizona, he could have won Arizona, and maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to dump on Arizona’s favorite son, John McCain, even after he passed away.”
“Try to keep our focus on defeating Democrats and not get involved in interim party fights,” Gingrich said. “I think if we do those things, Trump has a great capacity to raise money, great capacity to focus issues and a great capacity to turn out his base.”
“I think he’s better served to spend 10 percent on the past and 90 percent on the future,” Gingrich added of Trump.
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