GOP tried loyalty then rebellion yet both ultimately failed

For Republicans, November was bookended by two ominous developments: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation and the party's resounding defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races.

- Ronald Brownstein, Tribune News Service

Marjorie Taylor Greene

The Republican candidates in those races — Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia — tried one strategy for dealing with President Donald Trump: appeasing him at all costs. Greene tried the other: showing some independence from the president. That both roads ended in disaster underscores how narrow a path is available next year to Republicans in competitive states and congressional districts.

Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears followed the course almost all elected Republicans have adopted since Trump reemerged as the party’s leader in the run-up to 2024. Both resolutely refused to criticise him, even when he took actions that demonstrably hurt their states (like suspending federal dollars for a transit tunnel linking New Jersey and New York, or laying off thousands of Virginians who work for the federal government). Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears fatally refused to change course even as polls for months made clear that Trump's tumultuous second term was bleeding his support. In the end, Ciattarelli and Earle-Sears were both flattened by a tidal wave of discontent over Trump: