RNC Chair: GOP ‘Cooked As A Party’ If We Don’t Win 2016 Election

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus speaks at the Republican Party of Arkansas' Victory 365 center in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Aug.19, 2014. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus said on Thursday that the 2016 presidential election will make or break the party.

In an interview published early Friday morning, he told the Washington Examiner that even during a presidential election year, the RNC is still responsible for supporting House and Senate candidates.

“However, I think that we have become, unfortunately, a midterm party that doesn’t lose and a presidential party that’s had a really hard time winning,” Priebus told the Examiner. “We’re seeing more and more that if you don’t hold the White House, it’s very difficult to govern in this country — especially in Washington D.C.”

“So I think that — I do think that we’re cooked as a party for quite a while as a party if we don’t win in 2016. So I do think that it’s going to be hard to dig out of something like that,” he continued.

But Priebus said he feels “history is on our side.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: