Vice President Joe Biden during a speech in North Carolina cited the outcome of the Republican runoff for the special election for Alabama’s first congressional district as a sign that the Republican Party is moving back to a more “mainstream conservative” position.
“Your father’s Republican Party is trying to come back,” Biden said Friday according to a White House pool report. “The business community came along and said enough is enough. You are going to see the Republican Party wrestle back eventually to a mainstream conservative position and that’s good.”
Biden was referring to the business-backed state Sen. Bradley Byrne (R) who beat conservative activist Dean Young in the Republican runoff for the special election for Alabama’s first congressional district. Byrne’s victory was hailed as a win for the more business-aligned fraction of the Republican party and a defeat for social conservative Republicans.
Biden continued that there needs to be a “strong Republican Party” so that Democrats “have somebody we can look across the aisle and make a deal with.”
