GOP Senator Josh Hawley says the old Republican Party is ‘DEAD’ after poor midterms showing

The GOP as we know it is “dead” after Democrats won the Senate with a crucial victory in Nevada, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley said Saturday night.

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, who had the support of both Donald Trump and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, after sending mail-in ballots from reliably blue Clark County and also Washoe. County narrowly caught up with its rival.

Sources close to Laxalt’s campaign told DailyMail.com on Friday that the GOP’s ex-Nevada attorney general was “bracing for a loss” — a report he and his team furiously denied before the results came to fruition.

As of Sunday morning, Cortez Masto’s lead is just over 6,000 ballots for Laxalt.

Her win buries Republican chances to rise to power in the Senate for the next two years.

‘The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new,” Hawley wrote on Twitter just before 10 p.m. ET on Saturday.

If the GOP wins the only remaining race, the December second round in Georgia, the composition of the chamber will be exactly the same as it is now: 50 Republicans, 50 Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris in the deciding vote.

But even before the nail was put in the coffin of the Senate GOP on Saturday night, prominent players in the party had resigned themselves to the defeat and the finger-pointing had begun.

Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley have blamed the GOP leadership for the party’s lackluster performance in the midterm elections

Hawley directly blamed party leaders in an interview with RealClearPolitics, telling the outlet on Friday, “I disagreed that I didn’t have any agenda to go through during these midterm elections.”

Florida Senator Rick Scott, whose sole mission as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was to get members of his party elected to form a majority, called the showing a “complete disappointment” on Friday.

‘I think we had too few positive messages. We’ve said all about how bad the Biden agenda was. It’s bad, the Democrats are radical, but we need to have a plan of what we stand for,” Scott told Sean Hannity on Fox News.

She and other Republican senators have also made it clear that the knives are out — and reportedly aimed at McConnell.

Blake Masters, who lost to Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona, made it clear that he blamed McConnell alone.

Hawley (pictured gesturing to Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021) is one of a growing number of Republican lawmakers calling for leadership elections to be postponed

Hawley told RealClearPolitics that he is “not going to support the current leadership in the party” in the upcoming Senate GOP leadership election next week, which he and others have called for postponement.

He and fellow GOP senator Marco Rubio called for the election to be postponed, as did Scott and two other Republicans who outlasted surprisingly fierce electoral challengers — Sens. Ron Johnson and Mike Lee.

“Holding leadership elections without hearing from the candidates how they will perform their leadership duties and before we know whether we will be in the majority or even who all our members are violates the most fundamental principles of a democratic process,” Scott, Johnson , and Lee wrote in a letter, according to Politico.

But Senate GOP leaders are aiming to crush the uprising and continue next week.

In another surprising twist that defies pollsters’ expectations, Democrats also have a non-zero chance of retaining the House of Representatives as of Sunday morning.

Democratic incumbent Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Challenger Adam Laxalt, Multiple Outlets Projected

According to the Associated Press, President Joe Biden’s party currently holds 204 seats in the new Congress, while Republicans hold 211.

Major victories in Washington state on Saturday have boosted Democratic hopes, along with the Nevada victory.

Washington’s conservative 3rd congressional district was won by moderate Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a car shop owner, over Trump-backed retired green beret Joe Kent.

The district was narrowly won by Trump in 2020, and Republican voters there chose to replace their current congressman, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, to boot in the GOP primary after voting to impeach the ex-president in 2021.

Rep. Kim Schrier defeated a Republican primary challenger in Washington’s 8th congressional district to win a third term.

Schrier had turned the chair in 2018, which was under GOP control for more than two decades at the time.