Republican attorneys general candidates outperformed other Republican hopefuls in key races during the recent midterm elections, leading the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) to emphasize their role as the "front line" and "last line of defense" against progressive policies. This comes in the wake of a midterm cycle described as a "category-five political hurricane" for the Republican Party.
According to a post-election analysis by RAGA shared with Fox News Digital, Republican AG candidates ran an average of 4.62 percentage points ahead of Republican Senate candidates and 2.12 points ahead of Republican gubernatorial candidates in comparable states. This outperformance was noted in nine of 10 comparable states for Senate races and nine of 13 states for gubernatorial contests.
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper acknowledged the significant losses for the party, stating, "Last night was the worst election night for the Republican Party in 50 years." He added, "Today, we are dealing with the aftermath of a category-five political hurricane. It will take years to fully rebuild."
Despite the overall challenging environment for Republicans, Piper's memo highlighted specific states where AG candidates showed strong performance. In Iowa, the GOP AG candidate ran 9.3 points ahead of the gubernatorial candidate. In Ohio, the margin was 7.3 points, and in Colorado, it was 10.3 points. The Colorado GOP AG candidate also outpaced the Republican Senate candidate by 7.7 points.
In Florida, which is now considered the largest red state, Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier won by 1.8 percentage points, slightly outperforming Gov.-elect Byron Donalds, who secured victory by 1.3 points. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers won reelection by 12.6 points, significantly ahead of the Republican Senate candidate Pete Ricketts (6.7-point win) and Governor Jim Pillen (8.4-point victory).
Piper stressed that "there are no moral victories," noting that Republicans did lose five AG seats to Democrats in the midterms. However, he contrasted this with projections of a net 51 House seat loss and a potential net loss of nine Senate seats for Republicans. RAGA spent over $40 million on the midterms, nearly double its 2022 spending, and projected raising more than $50 million.
The memo concluded with a forward-looking statement: "No amount of outperformance can make up for the historical Republican losses. RAGA will start to candidate recruit for 2027 and 2028 now and has set the expectation that we will continue to overperform, no matter the environment."
Piper identified key progressive policies that Republican AGs are positioned to counter, including court packing, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Second Amendment restrictions, and the abolition of ICE.