Republicans are panicking about President Donald Trump's 2020 prospects in Pennsylvania following a shellacking in the midterm elections last month where Democrats flipped three congressional seats, 12 state House seats, four state Senate seats, and won the governorship for the fifth time in a row, Politico reports.
The GOP state party is also in disarray as state chairman Val DiGiorgio is being blamed for some of the defeat.
Trump campaign officials have been in contact with DiGiorgio as Pennsylvania is key for the president's election – he won the state by less than one percentage point in 2016.
"He has to win Pennsylvania in order to win the presidency," Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., told Politico. "And I don't think he's the favorite to win against a generic Democrat."
The losses were big – Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., lost by nearly 700,000 votes to Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Republican Scott Wagner lost by more than 800,000 votes.
DiGiorgio last month said the party needed to "recruit more Latinos to run, more Asian Americans to run."
"In Chester [County], we've got a big Mexican community, we've got a large and growing Indian community," he added. "We need to do a better job of reaching out to those folks."
Bruce Hottle, a state party committee member, said a change needed to "be looked at" following the 2018 results.
"There's no doubt in my mind there," Hottle said.
"Our position was much better two years ago," added Mike Cibik, another state party committee member. "A blind man would see that. . . . There isn't sufficient staff . . . and they aren't raising money."
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