Conservatives are starting to blame Donald Trump after a Republican "red wave" failed to materialize during the midterm elections.
After years of Trump choosing candidates and demanding parties back them, conservatives are starting to question whether hitching their wagon to the former president is worth it after all.
Commentators have taken the election results as a sign, Fox News reported Wednesday.
"Commentators argued that Trump had endorsed outlandish candidates who turned easy victories into close races, and close races into losses," wrote reporter Anders Hagstrom.
The contrast between Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one that conservatives are also seeing. DeSantis won in traditionally blue areas of Florida. Granted, Democrats all but abandoned the state for other candidates around the country.
"All the chatter on my conservative and GOP channels is rage at Trump like I've never seen," said Michael Brendan Dougherty, a senior writer at National Review "'The one guy he attacked before Election Day was DeSantis — the clear winner, meanwhile, all his guys are s---ing the bed.'"
"GOP Source tells me after tonight, with Trump candidates underperforming and DeSantis winning by double digits, 2024 is a 'free for all,'" said RealClearPolitics reporter Phil Wegmann. "'Everybody in the water. If you want to take on Trump, he's never been weaker.'"
The popular Reagan Battalion Twitter account argued it was time to "move on" from Donald Trump.
"If DeSantis in Florida wildly overperforms all the handpicked and Trump-supported Republicans in other swing states (particularly if they *lose* close races), well then gosh that is going to be a fascinating new narrative that will be commented upon by positively no one," explained National Review podcast host Jeffrey Blehar.
Trump has already warned DeSantis that if he runs in 2024 it could hurt him "very badly." But DeSantis will be able to argue he can do what Trump can't.
