Have Republicans largely fixed their "candidate quality" problems?

[ProgressiveModerate]

In 2022 and 2024, Republicans were plagued with a lot of poor congressional candidates that many argue cost them key races. Heck, this year 4 states split ticket for a Trump and a Dem Senator, and that seems like it can be at least partially attributed to the Republican candidates just sucking.

However, for 2026 it seems like Republicans have decent incumbents in a lot of the competitive (or potentially competitive) Senate races, and for Dem-held seats strong candidates like Ossoff and Sununu have been floated.

However, we're still 2 years out, and we still don't know if many of these potentially strong candidates are running or if they'll face any credible opposition in the primaries. There's also the case that many of these perceived strong candidates may be the nominees but end up doing poorly because of inability to consolidate the Republican base,.

Will poor candidate quality be less of an issue for Republicans this cycle?

[Jumped off the American Sinking Ship]

I think people thought they would about this time 4 years ago and look how that turned out.

[David Hume]

In 2022 and 2024, Republicans were plagued with a lot of poor congressional candidates that many argue cost them key races. Heck, this year 4 states split ticket for a Trump and a Dem Senator, and that seems like it can be at least partially attributed to the Republican candidates just sucking.

However, for 2026 it seems like Republicans have decent incumbents in a lot of the competitive (or potentially competitive) Senate races, and for Dem-held seats strong candidates like Ossoff and Sununu have been floated.

 

Sununu said he has no eyes on the 2026 Senate election in New Hampshire. 'I would rule myself completely out of a U.S. Senate race'

[TML]

In 2022 and 2024, Republicans were plagued with a lot of poor congressional candidates that many argue cost them key races. Heck, this year 4 states split ticket for a Trump and a Dem Senator, and that seems like it can be at least partially attributed to the Republican candidates just sucking.

However, for 2026 it seems like Republicans have decent incumbents in a lot of the competitive (or potentially competitive) Senate races, and for Dem-held seats strong candidates like Ossoff and Sununu have been floated.

 

Sununu said he has no eyes on the 2026 Senate election in New Hampshire. 'I would rule myself completely out of a U.S. Senate race'

Also, in the aftermath of the 2022 elections, one particular poster stated that Sununu would have lost by about 4-5 points had he challenged Hassan that year.

[CityofSinners]

Way too early to say that. I would bet against republicans fixing their bad candidate problem.

Trump winning gives GOP primary voters an easy excuse to vote against the electability candidate.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Hahaha! No! If they did they would have the down-ballot races they probably should have last year.

[Anti-Penguin Tariff Voter]

No

[CentristRepublican]

In 2022 and 2024, Republicans were plagued with a lot of poor congressional candidates that many argue cost them key races. Heck, this year 4 states split ticket for a Trump and a Dem Senator, and that seems like it can be at least partially attributed to the Republican candidates just sucking.

However, for 2026 it seems like Republicans have decent incumbents in a lot of the competitive (or potentially competitive) Senate races, and for Dem-held seats strong candidates like Ossoff and Sununu have been floated.

 

Sununu said he has no eyes on the 2026 Senate election in New Hampshire. 'I would rule myself completely out of a U.S. Senate race'

Also, in the aftermath of the 2022 elections, one particular poster stated that Sununu would have lost by about 4-5 points had he challenged Hassan that year.

Disagree with that analysis. Imo it would've gone down to the wire. Probably like Tilt Hassan.

[Paleobrazilian]

I actually think 2024 Senate candidates were decent (not Kari Lake, of course), (a lack of) money may have been a bigger problem.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

Candidate quality is pretty subjective. I mean most people here called "Connecticut" Dave McCormick a bad canididate and he ended up unseating a Pennsylvania institution.

[Schumer can go f*** himself!]

Not even close

McCormick, Rogers, Sam Brown, and Sheehy were all decidedly below average candidates

Moreno, Lake, and Hovde were dumpster fire-tier candidates

[Pollster]

"Candidate quality" is a moving target and defining it (especially for those of us currently working on a book on it) is extraordinarily challenging. But to answer this thread's question, I would be very surprised if there is a single Republican challenger/non-incumbent in a battleground race in 2026 who has a higher net favorable rating than their Democratic opponent.

[GAinDC]

Republicans are about to enter an era where they’ll keep trying to recapture the Trump magic with MAGA candidates but will fail miserably.

[Atlas Force]

(especially for those of us currently working on a book on it)

*eyes emoji*

[Pollster]

(especially for those of us currently working on a book on it)

*eyes emoji*

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=545895.0

[Atlas Force]

(especially for those of us currently working on a book on it)

*eyes emoji*

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=545895.0

This is so cool and interesting

[Vosem]

This was a huge problem in 2022, but I'm not sure that this was really an issue in 2024? In 2024 they were going up against a set of popular incumbents in light-blue states, and generally kept the races pretty close. In 2022 they were facing less entrenched candidates in redder states and completely missed the train.

There was an effort in 2022 to capture Trumpism by running celebrity candidates, which uniformly didn't work, but the party more-or-less moved past that in 2024. Steve Daines had a much better understanding of candidate recruitment than Rick Scott (who had earlier not really succeeded at electing any of his allies to the Florida Legislature); in the House, Tom Emmer was the NRCC chairman in 2020 (when he was very successful by any reasonable standard) and 2022 (when he was hobbled by being forced to accept various inanities like Bo Hines and Madison Gesiotto, but still more-or-less overcame that and took the House). Richard Hudson seems fine, but Emmer was actually good at his job.

I think candidate quality on the Republican side won't be too much of an issue in 2026, especially since for Republicans a presidential midterm will obviously be much more about defense than offense. By far the most important recruit for the GOP is trying to get Brian Kemp to run for the Senate, which will hopefully happen, but apart from that it'll be lots of defending incumbents.

[oldtimer]

Candidate quality is pretty subjective. I mean most people here called "Connecticut" Dave McCormick a bad canididate and he ended up unseating a Pennsylvania institution.

If you look at Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, you realise that he won only because Trump won Pennsylvania by just enough to carry him over the finish line.

Candidate quality didn't matter again, they all underperformed the top line.