NYT: Speaker Paul Ryan Gets Much Blame for Democrats' House Win

House Speaker Paul Ryan deserves much blame for the GOP’s loss of the House in the 2018 election, says a report by the New York Times.

Ryan’s divisive management of the caucus, his primary focus on tax cuts instead of infrastructure spending, his refusal to depart even after his promise to resign, and his weak fund-raising, all helped to divide, disorganize, and discourage the GOP caucus, says the New York Times post-mortem report:

The message from Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, was urgent and unsparing. In a meeting with Republican lawmakers before they left Washington for the August congressional recess, Mr. McCarthy warned that time was running short: Unless they intensified their campaign efforts and forcefully delivered a coherent message, he said, Republicans would suffer grievous losses in November.

By Labor Day, Republicans were fatally unprepared for an onslaught of Democratic campaign spending that overwhelmed their candidates from South Florida to Seattle. Party leaders on Capitol Hill and in the White House soon turned on one another and against their candidates with growing intensity. Two key groups — the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s campaign arm in the House, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, a powerful Republican super PAC — plunged into all but open warfare over messaging and money.

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