10 Lessons for Republicans From the 2024 Election

After every election, whether you win or lose, it's important to look back for lessons that need to be learned.

Now that the 2024 election is in the books, what should we learn? What are the lessons for Republicans as we move forward?

#1: Don't learn the wrong lessons. Every campaign is unique. And, as candidates go, President-elect Donald Trump is certainly unique, and he won't be on the ballot again. Having him on the ballot was lightning in a bottle and it covered up deficiencies. That means that we can't simply look at what worked in this campaign and assume that it works in the next campaign. It's what's happened when you hear it said that someone was "fighting the last war," rather than being prepared for the next one.

#2: Be relevant. It's the most critical job of every candidate or political party. Those that aren't, don't grow. Those that are, grow, raise money, win and influence public policy. The lesson is to continue to be relevant to what voters care about. It means taking action on the things that matter most to voters, and in a way that they understand is relevant. It's the equivalent of fighting downhill, rather than uphill, (and trying to make people care about other issues).

#3: Issues matter. Lee Atwater was right. Issues win campaigns. He said it so much that I had a sign with that quote made up to hang in my office years ago. And it rang true again in this election. In every survey for well over a year, the economy, inflation, crime, and immigration were shown to be the top concerns of Americans. One candidate talked about those issues, and the other one tried to change the subject. Voters noticed.

#4: The GOP is growing. The Republican Party of 2024 is the most demographically and economically diverse in memory. Trump finished with the highest levels of support among Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans of any Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon. It's expanding because Trump had a message that resonated, and much of the country recognizes that a great portion of the Democratic Party has absolutely lost its mind. It's why you saw Vice President Kamala Harris and even former President Barack Obama out on the stump either patronizing or outright scolding Black men. But come to find out Black men actually care about having a successful economy like most other Americans.

#5: Seize opportunity. Given Trump's historic gains with minority voters, the door is wide open to continue to reach out to these groups by demonstrating how Trump's policy agenda is relevant to them. Those are people who can be brand ambassadors for the GOP in areas where we need it, not to mention areas that would pull the guts out of the existing Democratic coalition.

#6: Growth can be messy. Politics is full of people, and people tend to disagree. Good politics is about consensus, and the process of building a consensus is messy when you're growing and adding more people. The party that adds the most people with the broadest consensus and keeps most of them on board working for its candidates usually wins. For Republicans, it's a recognition that the detour the party took since the 90s on issues like trade and immigration were mistakes (they subtracted). It left more of our base alienated. Now, we're adding again.

#7: Remember who we are. If good growth is more people with a broad consensus, then we have to remember that we are the Republican Party, not the Libertarian Party, and that the GOP is and has been the home of the conservative movement (with varying degrees of success) for over fifty years. As the consensus develops, it has to add, not subtract. Libertarianism and traditional values don't necessarily mix. We need to avoid the temptation to reach out so far that more people are inclined to leave the tent rather than come in. A divided Republican Party is the road to Democratic victories, and only we can create division by alienating those who already support us.

#8: Election integrity matters. As a good friend once said, "Personnel is policy." And since personnel is about elections, election integrity matters. We've now seen that principle play out in both a negative and a positive way. After 2020, the lesson was to: 1) make legislative changes where possible, 2) sue wherever you have to and 3) if all else fails, be better at using the existing rules than they are. The results of the 2024 election prove those points. They need to be remembered and rehearsed to the point that they simply become reflexes at every level of the party.

#9: Focus on fundamentals. Whether you're running a race for school board or president of the United States, successful campaigns (and political parties) focus on three fundamentals: 1) a message that voters understand is relevant to their daily lives, 2) the organizational manpower to identify and turn out a majority of votes on Election Day, and 3) raising the money to pay for it all. The GOP needs to be relentlessly reexamining, retooling, and implementing these fundamentals at every level. For the RNC, that means putting more resources into these assets for state party organizations and campaigns at every level.

#10: Nothing is permanent. States, districts, and local communities that used to be Democrat are now Republican, others that used to elect Republicans now elect Democrats. Things change. Political climates change. Candidates, campaigns, and party organization quality changes for better or worse. All of these things can and do change given effort (or lack thereof). We need to remember that we're always one election away from success or failure. Growth or decline. All that is guaranteed is that there's another election to get ready for.

If we learn and apply the right lessons this time, then we're less likely to have to learn from failure the next time around.