(KERO) — It’s been a busy week for lawmakers. With the Capitol riots and President Donald Trump’s impeachment, some are wondering where the Republican party goes from here. And as 23ABC’s Austin Westfall found out, local GOP officials say their strategy for success moving forward includes a few different things including taking this time to reflect on their own core values.
The Republican Party is in uncharted territory. A Republican president was just impeached for a record second time, and the party just lost the United States Senate, along with the presidential election. In order to rebound, local GOP officials said the key in the future is obvious: unity.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has an optimistic view of the future for House Republicans. The GOP picked up seats in the House this year but not as many as they hoped, and also fell short in other areas
“I still believe at the end of the day, in two years from now, the Republican Party will be the majority in the House of Representatives,” said McCarthy. “We’ve lost the presidency and now we lost the Senate. I think this is a time for the party to reflect.”
Leader McCarthy said despite a rocky 2020, the GOP can strengthen by unifying behind core conservative ideas, a sentiment shared by Kern County Republican Party and Kern County Young Republicans who told 23ABC in a joint statement Thursday in part:
“Moving forward the Republican Party will continue to be the party of working men and women of this country, protecting the tax cuts that help spur our economy even helping reduce the economic damage that COVID caused, continue our efforts for a secure border especially to fight the drug and COVID issues associated with an open border, opening businesses safely, and controlling the constant push for bigger government by the democrat leadership.”
Although some Republicans are unified on ideas the party appears to be partly divided on the impeachment of President Trump. Ten House Republicans voted to impeach the president which included Representative David Valadao, whose district encompasses a part of Kern County. The congressman talked to 23ABC on Wednesday evening.
When asked if he faced any backlash from fellow Republicans, Valadao responded: “No, colleagues are usually really good about that. Most members of Congress always respect each other and understand that they have to vote what they believe is right. I’ve never criticized another member for their vote, and they’ve never criticized me.”
Valadao and the other 9 Congress members have been applauded by some Democratic organizations and denounced by some GOP groups.
Kern County Young Republicans said on Facebook that they’re biting their tongue on criticizing a fellow conservative but calling on Valadao to release a simple statement on his voting record.
Any points of division in the Republican Party aside, the Young Republicans said in that joint statement that: “The future of the Republican party is strong. Over a dozen new Republicans in the House, and 74 million votes for President Trump’s agenda.”
Democrats do have the majority in Congress and the Oval Office right now, giving them a major amount of power to pass laws for at least the next two years. If the House does flip red in 2022, House Republicans would then have more negotiating power.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY INTERVIEW:
