Lessons Republicans Should Learn From the Election Losses (but Probably Won’t)
Derek Hunter
| Dec 08, 2022
It’s frustrating watching Republican candidates lose winnable races. We could argue for days about why those races were lost, but that circular firing squad wouldn’t solve anything or change any results going forward, so let’s deal with the reality of the situation. There are a lot of lessons Republicans need to learn going forward – nominate better candidates, run on issues, etc. – but the most important lesson they can learn is one they likely won’t: that Fox News isn’t real life.
I know, I know, Fox is where Republicans go to get a fair shake from the media, blah, blah blah. Part of being a Republican is recognizing that you’re not going to get a fair shake from the media, so you’d better learn to deal with it. And while a Hannity or Tucker hit might be great for fundraising, it is a poor substitute for actual campaigning or, dare I say it, local media.
I know, that’s heresy to say, but it’s also true. Nothing against Fox News, I watch Special Report with Brett Baier every night, but while its prime-time lineup dominates the ratings, it still only reaches a tiny fraction of the population.
I’ll just use round numbers to make it easy, but let’s just say that the average prime time Fox News show has an audience of 3 million people. That’s pretty good and dominates its timeslot. But it’s still less that 1 percent of the population, statistically insignificant when you’re running a political campaign.
Moreover, if you’re running for the Senate, you’re reaching a tiny fraction of the people who can actually vote for you, which is what elections are all about. If you just take that 3 million and divide it by 50 states, you’re reaching only 60,000 people per state. We know that’s not accurate, there are more people watching Fox News in California or New York than the Dakotas combined, for example, so if you aren’t running a heavily populated states the return on your investment in time is even smaller. If you’re running for the House and you take it down to the district level, forget about it.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2022/12/08/lessons-republicans-should-learn-from-the-election-losses-but-probably-wont-n2616870
