Conservatives should take 3 key lessons from November's gubernatorial races, pollster (and Institute board member) Kellyanne Conway told NRO's Kathryn Lopez in an interview.
- Obamacare is poison. Despite no money, Virginia candidate Ken Cuccinelli closed a double-digit negative gap against Obamacare advocate Terry McAuliffe to a mere -2.5% on Election Day. Given another week [or, we could add, RINO donor support], Cuccinelli would likely have won.
- The "War on Women" has run its course. NJ candidate Chris Christie's opponent, Barbara Buono, used the same "abortion, anyone, anytime, anywhere" playbook as McAuliffe in Virginia and lost to Christie by 34 points.
- Don't play your opponent's game. Both sides [in the Virginia race] went negative early and stayed negative. Women prefer positive solutions to negative slights.
Conway has one piece of advice looking forward to 2016:
What must be resisted is allowing a bunch of donors and consultants to
proclaim “who can win” and “who can’t win” three years before the
election. It is silly, unprovable, designed to pad the pockets of
consultants and dissuade conservative candidates, and is never followed
by the Left. They nominate non-household names (Carter, Clinton, Obama)
and Republicans nominate people known best for having lost previously
(Dole, Romney, McCain).
Obamacare, Common Core, and economic growth will
be among the important questions to GOP primary voters. The ability to
connect with and convince working-class voters and others who remain
elusive to the GOP will also matter.
Read the
full interview.
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