Reince Priebus Admits That Republicans Are Done If They Don't Win In 2016

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RNC Chairman Reince Priebus admitted that the Republican Party will be “cooked” and in a hole for a long time if they don’t win the White House in 2016.

During an interview with The Washington Examiner, Priebus said:

However, I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn’t lose and a presidential party that’s had a really hard time winning,” Priebus said. “We’re seeing more and more that if you don’t hold the White House, it’s very difficult to govern in this country — especially in Washington D.C.

So I think that — I do think that we’re cooked as a party for quite a while as a party if we don’t win in 2016. So I do think that it’s going to be hard to dig out of something like that,” Priebus told the Examiner. “I don’t anticipate that. I think … history is on our side.

It is always a bad sign for a candidate or a party when they can’t talk about an election in current terms, but turn to historical precedent for comfort. The media told voters in 2012 that historical precedent said that President Obama would not win reelection because his job approval rating was under 50%. Obama won reelection in a landslide.

Priebus was correct. If Republicans don’t win the White House, they will be finished. A new Democratic president would most likely get the chance to tip the Supreme Court back to the left. Republicans will almost certainly lose the Senate if Democrats win the White House, and there will be a new wave of redistricting coming with the 2020 census. Republicans have probably reached their peak as a House majority, and from 2016 on, they will most likely begin to lose seats.

Democrats don’t need any more motivation heading into 2016, but RNC Chairman Priebus gave it to them. Republicans are a fractured and directionless party. Without a president to unify them, it might be a very long time before the GOP gets its act together.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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