Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, told the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” Friday that she is optimistic about building on recent special election successes and believes Democrat voters are seeing firsthand the drawbacks of living in blue states.
McDaniel said states need to obviously take precautions with the coronavirus outbreak, and big cities have challenges that smaller towns do not, but she said millions of Americans want to go back to work and revive the economy.
“You’re seeing the freedom-loving American people say, ‘Listen, let us go back to work. We can do this. We can social distance, give us the autonomy and the freedom to think for ourselves.'”
She pointed to states like Florida, Georgia and Texas that have made strides in their reopening and compared them to Democrat states like California and Michigan that remain under strict lockdown.
“I think as we get to November, you’re going to look at the unemployment in those states; you’re going to look at other things in those states, and people are going to say, ‘Republicans did it right.’”
McDaniel’s comments come as President Trump increased his criticism on Democrat governors who he says are dragging their feet during the country’s reopening. The Washington Examiner reported Friday that Trump accused Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, of “playing politics” with his state’s reopening,
“We have to be a little bit careful. It’s got a Democrat governor, so we have to be a little bit careful with that, because they’re playing politics,” he told the website. “They’re playing politics, as you know, by delaying the openings. … To me that’s politics. They think it’s a bad thing for me if they delay the opening. I think it’s bad for them. And you have people protesting outside, and those people like Trump.”
These governors insist that they’re only objective is to protect the people of the state and prevent the healthcare system from being overloaded.
Republicans saw gains this week in special elections when Mike Garcia, a former Navy fighter pilot, won Democrat Katie Hill’s seat and Republican Tom Tiffany won in Wisconsin.
McDaniel said she usually doesn’t put too much stock in special elections, but noticed a trend.
“The one thing we saw with both of them was the energy on the Republican side, the energy of our base was much higher than Democrats and that bodes well for us coming towards November.”