NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 A draft of a report examining the Republican Party鈥檚 struggles in last year鈥檚 midterm elections says the results show that voters aren鈥檛 interested in 鈥渞elitigating previous elections鈥 and that failing to heed those warnings could harm the GOP in 2024 and beyond.
The draft notably does not mention former President by name, but alludes to the controversial, far-right candidates he endorsed who went on to lose. That includes many who echoed the former president's .
鈥淲e cannot afford to ignore the obvious lessons of the 2022 election cycle,鈥 the report鈥檚 introduction reads. 鈥淭he Republican candidates in 2022 who delivered results and had a vision for the future did much, much better than those stuck in the past and rehashing old grievances.鈥
The draft also says that Republicans 鈥渦nderestimated the impact鈥 of the in the months before the midterms, a landmark ruling that both parties have acknowledged played a role in Democrats' .
The Republican 好色tv Committee is poised to review the draft report as members gather later this week privately in Oklahoma City. While the initial draft does not reference Trump directly, one of the report鈥檚 authors, RNC Committeeman Henry Barbour, of Mississippi, said Thursday that the draft is not final and could change.
The Associated Press obtained only the introduction section of the report, but Republicans familiar with the draft said Trump was not mentioned in the rest of the document. Those Republicans spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the preliminary document.
An RNC spokesperson did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment Thursday.
The omission of the former president's name is a sign of his enduring dominance in the Republican Party and shows how even high-ranking GOP officials remain loath to cross him. is considered the party front-runner and maintains a strong base of support among GOP voters.
Republicans, who had expected a GOP wave amid high inflation, reclaimed the House majority by a much smaller margin than party leaders anticipated. The party also failed to win back the Senate majority, losing notably in battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, where Trump-backed nominees had echoed his false claims of 2020 election fraud.
Although not yet finalized, the report is a far cry from the audit conducted after the 2012 elections, when President Barack Obama won a second term in office by defeating Republican Mitt Romney. That report said the party needed to adopt a more inclusive and welcoming tone, embrace a more forgiving position on immigration and conduct more vigorous outreach to Black and Hispanic voters.
The authors of the post-2022 report did not shrink from urging the party to 鈥渇ight against the failed policies鈥 of President and Democrats, but added, 鈥渨e should do it with civility.鈥 Biden he was seeking reelection this week.
鈥淭he American people are ready to move on, but no GOP candidate will benefit if we question the patriotism of our political rivals,鈥 it states. "Our political opponents also love America."
While warning against a focus on the past, the draft report from the 2022 midterms also described 鈥渆lection integrity鈥 as a continuing 鈥渃ritical issue.鈥 The term has emerged as coded phrasing for Republicans after Trump baselessly blamed mass voter fraud for his defeat to Biden in the 2020 election 鈥 despite a broad coalition of top government and industry officials calling it
Citing 鈥渆lection integrity鈥 concerns, Republicans across the country have pushed laws to make it harder for citizens to vote.
The report also touched on voting by mail, an issue that Trump has railed against by claiming, without evidence, that it is ripe for fraud and that mail ballots may be 鈥渕anipulated.鈥 Due in part to Trump's criticism, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cast mail ballots.
鈥淩epublican campaigns cannot disregard mail-in voting or other legal means of voting or turning out voters,鈥 the introduction states.
"Campaigns do that at their own political peril," it continues. 鈥淩epublican campaigns must push our supporters to vote early in person or by mail. Republicans cannot continue to give Democrats a head start.鈥
Bill Palatucci, an RNC committeeman from New Jersey who has been a vocal Trump critic, said a review of the 2022 midterms that doesn't mention the former president is pointless.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not worth the effort if you鈥檙e not going to honestly review the facts of what happened,鈥 Palatucci said. 鈥淚f it doesn鈥檛 mention Trump or the election deniers by name, it doesn鈥檛 matter. It would be a waste of time to read it because it鈥檚 not an honest evaluation of what really went wrong.鈥
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
