GOP Attorneys General Position Themselves as Party's 'Last Line of Defense'

Republican Attorneys General (AGs) are positioning themselves as the "front line" and "last line of defense" against Democratic policies following a difficult midterm election cycle for the Republican Party. A post-election analysis from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) indicated that GOP AG candidates performed better than other Republican hopefuls in several key races.

According to an internal RAGA memo, Republican AG candidates ran an average of 4.62 percentage points ahead of Republican Senate candidates in comparable states and 2.12 points ahead of Republican gubernatorial candidates. GOP AG candidates outperformed their party's Senate candidates in nine out of 10 comparable states and outperformed gubernatorial candidates in nine out of 13 states. Iowa, Ohio, and Colorado were highlighted as states where Republican attorney general candidates saw significant outperformance compared to their party's gubernatorial candidates.

In Florida, Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier won by 1.8 percentage points, slightly surpassing the margin of victory for Governor-elect Byron Donalds, who won by 1.3 points. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers won re-election by 12.6 points, significantly outpacing Republican Senate candidate Pete Ricketts (6.7 points) and Republican Gov. Jim Pillen (8.4 points).

RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper described the midterm results for the broader Republican Party as a "category-five political hurricane" and acknowledged that "last night was the worst election night for the Republican Party in 50 years." Despite the overall challenging environment, Piper urged colleagues to view their role as crucial in countering Democratic initiatives.

Piper’s memo identified potential areas of Democratic focus that Republican AGs could challenge, including "court packing, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Second Amendment restrictions, and abolishing ICE." Despite the outperformance of AG candidates, Republicans did lose five AG seats to Democrats in the midterms. RAGA reported spending more than $40 million on the midterms, nearly double its 2022 expenditure, and was on track to raise over $50 million.

"No amount of outperformance can make up for the historical Republican losses," the memo concluded. RAGA indicated plans to begin candidate recruitment for 2027 and 2028, setting an expectation to continue outperforming regardless of the political climate.