Josh Hawley says Republican party is ‘dead’ as backlash against Donald Trump after midterms grows

‘Time to bury it. Build something new’

The Republican party is "dead" and needs a complete overheal after its disappointing results in the midterm elections, according to GOP senator Josh Hawley, part of a growing backlash against the party’s leadership.

Mr Hawley’s remark on the state of the GOP came shortly after incumbent Democrat senator Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt in Nevada, a result that meant the Democrats retained control of the Senate.

"The old party is dead," the Missouri senator said in a tweet late on Saturday. "Time to bury it. Build something new."

The 42-year-old has been vocally critical of the Republican party's shortcomings in the midterm polls, including the way it conducted its election campaign.

The defeat of TV doctor Mehmet Oz by Democrat John Fetterman in Pennsylvania following one of the most brutal campaigns of the election season led Mr Hawley to ask why independent voters should cast their ballot for the Republican party "unless you give them an agenda they care about."

In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Mr Hawley directly blamed the party leaders for the poor performance, adding that the election strategy “was a pretty serious mistake”.

Donald Trump and other senior figures have been facing growing flak from within the party following last Tuesday’s election, with more GOP members turning their backs on the former president.

“I did not agree with failing to have any kind of an agenda to run on in these midterms,” Mr Hawley said.

“I did not agree with the decision to bad-mouth our candidates in the middle of the campaign, I did not agree with the decision to leave Blake Masters for dead in Arizona.”

On Thursday night, Mr Hawaley said that “Washington Republicanism” lost big on Tuesday night in the midterm polls.

He added: "When your 'agenda' is cave to Big Pharma on insulin, cave to [Chuck] Schumer on gun control and Green New Deal ('infrastructure'), and tease changes to Social Security and Medicare, you lose."

The senator said the party has failed to “actually” do anything for the working class people and suggested that the GOP should focus on imposing tougher tariffs on China, “reshore American jobs, open up American energy full throttle” and put “100k new cops on the street”.

"Unrig the system,” he added.