Texas GOP Vice Chairman David Covey said Friday that Republicans made mistakes in the Nov. 3 elections and must earn back voters' trust. He called the party's losses a "near-extinction event." Covey, a Longview resident, has served as the party's vice chairman since this summer.
Covey said the party was out of touch on affordability, which he called the chief reason for its losses. He blamed President Donald Trump in part, saying Trump told voters the economy was in great shape when they were not experiencing that in their own lives. He also said the party's top-down system of control failed to listen to voters' needs.
The Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress nationally. In Texas, Democrats won every statewide elected office on the ballot and gained control of the state House. Covey said his review of the numbers showed about three-quarters of a million Republican voters stayed home.