Delco GOP Leader Wants Republicans to ‘Move Beyond' Donald Trump

As Republicans across the country analyze why a red wave didn’t materialize in 2022, the chair of a suburban county where Republicans used to dominate local government has an idea of what should come next.

“It’s time for the Republican Party to move beyond Donald Trump,” Tom McGarrigle, chair of the Delaware County Republican Party, told NBC10.

While McGarrigle has come to a conclusion, Republican party leaders and voters across the country will have decisions to make if Trump announces another run for president in 2024. Trump has already teased another campaign and has promoted a “special announcement” on Tuesday night.

Those decisions could be especially significant in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020. In the 2022 midterms, Trump’s endorsed candidates in Pennsylvania – Mehmet Oz for Senate and Doug Mastriano for Governor – lost. But McGarrigle, a former state senator, also pointed to a string of local elections in recent years in which Republicans fell short.

“Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and in Delaware County we started losing elections you know in 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21,” McGarrigle said.

In that suburban county, Trump was a motivator for Democrats. In 2019, blue lawn signs read “Had enough Trump? Flip Delco.” That year, Democrats took control of the county council.

Talking to voters on Election Day, McGarrigle says he heard a similar refrain from people who – like him – had voted twice for Trump: that they wouldn’t be voting for him again in 2024.

“They think he’s too toxic,” McGarrigle said. “They think his policies, they all liked his policies but his messaging and the way he delivered his messaged was very offensive to people.”

McGarrigle also noted that Trump’s “brand is certainly not what it once was.”

Supporters of the former president, though, are quick to defend him as Republicans here and across the country point fingers at him for midterm losses.

“The people that are blaming don’t want to see him run,” said Michael Domanico, who runs The Trump Store selling Trump-themed merchandise in two locations in Bucks County and says he’s been a longtime Trump fan, following him for decades.

The store’s website currently features a rolling countdown awaiting Trump’s announcement on Tuesday.

“Everybody who comes in every day can’t wait for the announcement,” he said.

Domanico said the critics don’t stand for the Republican Party and that “most Republicans know that Trump is the Republican Party, and they back him all the way.”

Domanico says he thinks the bar in the midterms was set too high, with expectations to take the House and Senate.

“I think it maybe kept some voters away” because they thought Republicans would win anyway, he said.

Trump, who held a rally with Oz and Mastriano in Pennsylvania the Saturday before the election, is expected to speak Tuesday night from Mar-A-Lago in Florida.

“His path to the presidency is a little bit more difficult than it might have been even a month ago given the performance of a lot of his candidates in this last cycle,” said Republican analyst Joe Watkins.

Watkins expects Trump to announce he’s jumping in the race, and says with other potential candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence in the wings, it’s the smart thing to do politically – for Trump.

“Getting out early benefits President Trump, but it doesn’t make him the clear and easy winner of that nomination,” Watkins said.