Doug Heye: Former Republican Party Communications Director on the political shift in the United States

There’s been a shift within the United States. 

Donald Trump has claimed the Presidency, securing the over 270 Electoral College votes needed. 

CNN projects that the Republicans will gain control of the Senate, but the House of Representatives is still up for grabs. 

Former Republican Party Communications Director Doug Heye told Mike Hosking that Trump gained ground in traditionally blue states, which says a lot about how the country has changed and is changing. 

Trump lost New Jersey by only four points as opposed to the 16 points he lost by in 2020, Connecticut was lost by eight points compared to 20, Maryland was 22 compared to 33. 

“New York state is a good example – Trump lost the state by 12 points, he lost it by 23 last time, and Kamala Harris is on track for the worst performance in New York City since 1992.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the triaffect of the GOP. They would in the
White House take control of the center, most likely hold
the House. I think we can almost confirm that President
Eliz says it will be a golden age for America.
The Republican Party's form of communications director Doug hayesback with
this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning, good to be with you.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
What's your seen? Some of what is number will eventually
be I've got them in the low threes three o
eight sort of twenty sixteen. Ibergain, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I mean, if I'm honest, I've stopped looking once it
got to two seventy. What I've seen has been a
dramatic shift, though not just in the states that we
all focused on, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, you know, et cetera.
It's also been a shift in a lot of the
blue states, you know, states that were on nobody's radar screen,
which tells you a whole lot about how the country

(00:41):
has changed and is changing. So New Jersey nobody was
talking about. Donald Trump lost it by four points as
opposed to sixteen points last time, Connecticut eight points this
time as opposed to twenty last time, Maryland twenty two
as opposed to thirty three. We're seeing a huge shift
in to the right throughout the country. And you know,

(01:04):
New York State is a good example. Trump lost the
state by twelve points, he lost it by twenty three
last time, and Kamala Harris is on track for the
worst performance in New York City since nineteen ninety two.
So it's not just about electoral votes. It's a shift
within the country.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
New York got me as well. They hate him, they
indict them, but whoop, snow he don't will vote for him?
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, look, he still lost the state, but clearly, especially
if you look at New York City, those outer bureaus
that tend to be more heavily Hispanic where Trump has
absolutely overperformed, they voted for him, I have no doubt.
And Jewish voters certainly voted for Trump at a higher level.
He clearly lost Manhattan. I don't think there's any doubt
about that. But it tells us that there's real shifts

(01:52):
happening within the country throughout the country. And it's not
just here outside of Pennsylvania, or outside of Philadelphia or
or suburban Charlotte. It's almost everywhere in the country.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
His campaign this time was much more disciplined and professional.
I thought, is his presidency the same.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, we have to see who he hires. He started
with a very professional team in his early days at
the White House, with Ryan's previous and Sean Spice are
being two of the most prominent examples, and they didn't
last very long. And you know, you're going to have
a surge of people trying to go into this administration,
but they also need to go in with their eyes

(02:31):
wide open of what happened to the previous team. If
you were a press secretary or a chief of staff
or other prominent roles, your life expectancy was similar to
a spinal tap drummer. You might spontaneously combust at some point,
and certainly people going in are going to be mindful
of that this time.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
How do the do the Democrats? Let me put it
this way, do the Democrats have the wherewithal to understand
how badly they've misriad this and to fix it and
be competitive in twenty eight Not well.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
The wherewithal to understand it absolutely, the willingness to do
something about it may be a very different question, and
part of that is one of the reasons that Kamala
Harris lost wasn't because of anything she said in the
last couple of weeks. It's because she lost in twenty
nineteen when she took very far left positions to try
and flank to the left to win the primary, which

(03:22):
she obviously didn't do. Those came back to bid her.
And when we see what looks at as happened with
Hispanic voters, certainly rule voters. They're moving more to the right,
which means they're rejecting the more far left policies that
are coming from the Democrats, and they're willing to say, listen,
I don't like Donald Trump, per se. I don't like

(03:42):
some of the crazy things he says. He goes off
the rails sometimes. But what Democrats are doing in policy
I'm fundamentally opposed to. And that's part of the decision
they made.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Where do you reckon? The Trump victory sits in the
annals of history A term, a loss, a term. How
does that work?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, it's happened once before with Grover Cleveland. I look
at this election in terms of nineteen eighty. When Ronald
Reagan won one in nineteen eighty, it was a generational
shift and really propelled our politics for a long time.
The movement that we saw on the ground tells us
with rule voters, especially with Hispanic voters, Trump is probably

(04:23):
going to do better with Hispanic voters than any Republican ever.
And given everything that we've heard about immigration over the
past year, the people who think they know everything would
tell you that's impossible. But the reality is Hispanic voters
also care about a secure border, right, just like they
care about jobs in the economy and so forth. They
don't want to be called Latin X. They just want

(04:44):
a job that provides for their family, a secure border
and low crime and all of those things. Trump was
able to speak to those voters, and that's something that
Democrats are going to have to reckon with for a
long time. They could have a very good twenty twenty
six that sort of happened. There's a rebound Republicans certainly
did in twenty ten after Barack Obama's win in two

(05:05):
thousand and eight. But there's something generally generationally that's happening
on the ground, and that's what Democrats need to not
only reckon with and realize, but work to fix.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Oh it's good to have you on the program. Doug
Doug Hay, form of Communications directed for the Republican Party.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
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