LAS VEGAS — Two strikingly divergent visions of Republican political power performed out over the weekend at a convention of Jewish conservatives, the primary main gathering of G.O.P. leaders because the get together’s sweeping success in Tuesday’s elections. There have been shows of blustery confidence. And there have been requires warning and restraint as get together leaders tried to course of their drastic positive aspects.
Looming over all of it, and principally addressed gingerly, was the uncertainty about whether or not Republicans might replicate their decisive positive aspects with suburban voters, particularly ladies, if former President Donald J. Trump remained the face of the get together.
Though a majority of the audio system on the annual convention of the Republican Jewish Coalition had been effusive with their reward of the previous president and spent a lot of the two-day gathering citing his administration’s most conservative coverage achievements, others warned that Republicans who continued to present cowl to his baseless claims about fraud within the 2020 election had been jeopardizing the get together’s latest success.
Probably the most notable Trump skeptic was former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who urged Republicans to advertise a “plan for tomorrow, not a grievance about yesterday,” and mentioned that the get together can be making a grave mistake if it didn’t recommit itself to truth-telling.
“Profitable campaigns are at all times the campaigns that look ahead, not backwards,” Mr. Christie mentioned, incomes solely a smattering of applause from the group. Noting the less-than-enthusiastic response, Mr. Christie implored the viewers: “That deserves applause. As a result of if we don’t get it, we’re going to lose.”
The 2020 election, Mr. Christie mentioned, “is over.”
However that was not the message delivered by most different audio system — a gaggle that included greater than a half dozen of the present and former governors and senators who’re thought of doable presidential contenders and leaders-in-waiting each time Mr. Trump recedes from the highlight.
They provided a lot totally different interpretations of the outcomes on Election Day final week, which delivered wins for Republicans in Democratic strongholds up and down the poll — from Virginia, the place they gained the governor’s race for the primary time since 2009, to Washington State, the place a candidate working on a message of regulation and order prevailed within the contest for metropolis lawyer in Seattle. Republicans additionally picked up seats in municipal races throughout New York Metropolis and Lengthy Island and got here near pulling off a colossal upset within the governor’s race in New Jersey.
“The pattern is unmistakable,” mentioned Consultant Kevin McCarthy, the Home Republican chief who hopes to steer his get together again into the bulk subsequent yr. “A Republican wave is underway.”
A yr into the Biden administration, polling information, historical past and Tuesday’s outcomes point out the political local weather has turn out to be extremely unfavorable to Democrats, who’ve proved that they will beat Mr. Trump however haven’t satisfied sufficient People that they will govern successfully.
The election outcomes final week solely boosted the optimism of Republicans who already believed they had been prone to win the small variety of seats they wanted to win management of the Home subsequent yr and had been in a powerful place to win a majority within the Senate as effectively.
That confidence was irrepressible at their gathering in Las Vegas this weekend, as Republicans predicted not solely massive positive aspects within the 2022 midterm elections, however in 2024 as effectively.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas mentioned the outcomes final week foreshadowed a victory within the Home and the Senate. He additionally praised the “extraordinary braveness” and “metal spine” that Mr. Trump displayed as president.
Mr. Cruz giddily described the despondency he mentioned he witnessed amongst his Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill over the election final week and vowed that the 2022 midterms would carry in regards to the day when “Nancy’s going to get on her broom” and “fly again to California.” That comment, referring to the primary girl to carry the place of speaker of the Home, Nancy Pelosi, drew a spherical of hearty laughter from the viewers.
Talking with reporters after his speech on Friday night time, Mr. Cruz pointed to how suburban moms had been “coming residence to the Republican Get together” as a hopeful signal of the get together’s fortunes. “I feel there are lots of people throughout this nation, together with some soccer mothers in Virginia who could have voted for Joe Biden, and checked out this previous yr and had been horrified.”
However he twice declined to say whether or not the G.O.P. might once more count on comparable outcomes if Mr. Trump — who repelled suburban women and men in such excessive numbers in 2020 that it price him a number of swing states — resumed his position as his get together’s standard-bearer.
Nonetheless, like many different prime Republicans who’ve provided their evaluation of the nation’s immediately jolted political panorama, Mr. Cruz indicated that he believed the poor public perceptions of President Biden and the Democratic Get together had been sufficient to ensure Republican success.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who’s steadily talked about as a prime contender for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination ought to Mr. Trump resolve to not run, thundered towards what he known as a “Fauchian dystopia,” a reference to the federal government’s main infectious illness knowledgeable, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s a proponent of the sorts of public well being mandates and restrictions on on a regular basis exercise that many Republicans have opposed.
Trump’s Bid to Subvert the Election
“If they will violate your freedom on this difficulty, they’re going to violate your freedoms on different points,” Mr. DeSantis mentioned.
Mr. DeSantis additionally talked up his work as governor of Florida placing into impact insurance policies that borrow from Mr. Trump’s agenda. He spoke of his efforts to make sure “election integrity” by signing laws that restricted the distribution of absentee ballots, and of his refusal to assist the Biden administration resettle undocumented migrants apprehended on the southwestern border in Florida.
Mr. Trump didn’t converse on the occasion in individual however recorded a video message performed on the convention on Saturday morning through which he predicted banner years forward for the get together. “We’ll win again the Home,” he mentioned. “We’ll win again the Senate. We’ll win again in 2024 that lovely white constructing.”
In an interview, Mr. Christie mentioned he had instructed Mr. Trump in personal the whole lot he mentioned from the stage on Saturday. “He will get to resolve what position he needs to play,” he mentioned, including that he hopes the previous president would decide to play a extra constructive one than he has just lately. Mr. Trump has, for example, warned that Republican voters wouldn’t present up on the polls except the get together’s elected officers embrace his lies about voter fraud.
“However anyone who’s speaking in regards to the previous on this election is a loser,” Mr. Christie mentioned. “They’re simply going to lose as a result of the general public doesn’t need to see that.”
Along with Mr. Christie, the opposite Republican who urged his get together in unambiguous phrases to get previous Mr. Trump’s false and repeated insistences of being cheated of victory was Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.
Talking to the optimism within the room, Mr. Sununu provided hope but additionally a actuality test. “This week was a terrific week,” he mentioned, “however in the event you assume this week goes to hold us for a yr, you’ve bought one other factor coming.”
He cited a dialog he mentioned he had just lately with a Trump supporter he tried to dissuade from specializing in final yr: “Any person requested me, ‘Properly what in regards to the election in 2020?’ I mentioned, ‘Don’t fear in regards to the election. That’s historical past, man.’”
He added, “In case you are sitting right here speaking about 2020, or you might be frightened about who’s going to run in ’24, you might be lacking the boat.”