L&T Publisher Earl Watt

I went to bed Tuesday night, or should I say  Wednesday morning, already analyzing the election and admitting a few truths of what went wrong.

At the national level, three issues came to mind — tariffs, war with Iran and ICE actions.

Vice President JD Vance said the Iran war led to the midterm bloodbath for Republicans, and no too long later President Donald Trump agreed.

The problem is Trump said he would have to do it again.

That’s not learning from mistakes.

At the state level, most of the ads against Cindy Holscher focused on her being a flaming liberal. That is an asset to Johnson and Douglas counties, where Holscher built so massive of a lead that Ty Masterson could only cut the gap to 5,000 votes after all the votes were counted.

Locally, the Republican brand was damaged when Scott Carr, Presephoni Fuller and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott became massive tax-and-spenders, and instead of admitting the mistake and realizing the negative impact it had, the Republican Party doubled down when what I believe to be misled precinct people showed up with a pre-ordained slate of new officers under the false premise that the existing slate of officers were somehow undermining Republicans, and voted to return either the very people who betrayed the party to leadership roles or their family members, a slap in the face to everyone who protested the massive tax increase imposed by the Republican Taxing Trio.

Their rise to leadership was meant to exonerate their behavior. Instead, it split the support of Republicans. In August I wrote about the fracture and what would the new leadership do to unite the party.

It didn’t do anything. It made no effort to reach out to those they thought they were deposing. In a social media response to my column, Bill Prater said the answer to being successful despite splitting the Republican Party was yes, they could be successful.

Tuesday’s results tell a much different story and a deeper rift than I could have ever predicted. It’s one thing to lose a local election despite having a numerical advantage in party registrations. It is something else entirely when that numerical advantage is also outvoted for every single statewide election.

In the entire Big First District, only three counties did not give a majority to Tracey Mann — Douglas, Riley and Seward. Yes, Seward County’s Republican betrayal destroyed a century of domination in statewide elections for local Republicans.

When I tried to point out this issue, one local Republican said my influence wasn’t what it once was.

Instead of heeding the warning, Republicans ignored the public, the issues and the commitment to being the low-tax, limited government party, and by doing so gave Democrats their biggest Seward County victory in history.

They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Well, Houston, we have a problem, and it is cataclysmic.

True leadership will try to bring the multiple voices together, accept criticism and admit the tax scheme from 2025 was a disastrous move for Seward County Republicans. They need to find new ways to reach out to Hispanic voters as well. Or will they defend bad decisions and blame those who tried to head this off?

I hope integrity prevails and Republicans can once again represent the people rather than a clique.