By: Jonathan Martin

Kristol recounts the history of the GOP turning back to their governors in times of woe:

One pillar of any Republican comeback will surely be successful practical governance at the state level. The Republican revival of the early and mid-1990s — after the across-the-board defeat of 1992, when the first Bush administration was booted out with 38 percent of the vote — was due in part to the examples of effective state governance by Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin and John Engler in Michigan, to say nothing of Rudy Giuliani’s efforts in New York City. Then a governor, George W. Bush, retook the White House in 2000.

And, after the previous Democratic takeover of the White House, in 1976, it was a former governor, Ronald Reagan, who led the comeback and took the presidency. So history suggests that statehouses are where a lot of the GOP action will be over the next four years.

 

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