(The Wall Street Jounal is a Rupert Mudock owned publication.)

The Wall Street Journal editorial board this week put the blame for Republican losses in the midterms at the feet of former President Trump, calling him the GOP’s “biggest loser.”

The board said in an editorial published Wednesday that Trump-style Republican candidates lost in races that were “clearly” winnable, but the defeats might be what the Republican Party needs to see before the 2024 presidential election.

“What will Democrats do when Donald Trump isn’t around to lose elections? We have to wonder because on Tuesday Democrats succeeded again in making the former President a central campaign issue, and Mr. Trump helped them do it,” the board said.

Republicans were hoping for a red wave to retake control of both chambers of Congress, but Democrats outperformed the polls in many races. The GOP will likely win a narrow majority of the House, while which party will control the Senate is uncertain.

The board also criticized Trump for attacking other Republicans at a rally ahead of the midterms in an editorial published this past weekend.

The board pointed to several Senate races where Trump-backed candidates underperformed.

Don Bolduc lost the New Hampshire Senate race to incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan by about 8 points, according to most recent estimates, but Gov. Chris Sununu , who has been critical of Trump, won reelection by 16 points.

The board said businessman David McCormick would have been a better candidate to face Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the state’s Senate race. But McCormick would not entertain Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, so Trump endorsed a weaker candidate in Mehmet Oz, who lost to Fetterman, the board said.

The board said Trump could have stayed mostly quiet in the last few weeks of the election cycle except to spend money for Republican candidates, but he did the opposite and “played into Democratic hands.”

It said Trump’s rally with Oz last week could have hurt the Senate candidate with suburban voters who voted against Trump in 2020. ...