2022 elections were "the funeral for the Republican Party as we know it," says Sen. Josh Hawley

Republican lawmakers returned to Washington Monday for the first time since the midterm elections, sorting through the wreckage of their underwhelming performance last week.

"The Republican Party, as we have known it, is dead," Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley opined Monday, two days before Senate Republicans are scheduled to vote on who will be leading them into 2024. Just before the election, taking majority control from the Democrats seemed to be within their grasp. But over the weekend, with the slim victory in Nevada by Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, that opportunity slipped away. 

Republicans had felt most optimistic about their chances in the Silver State, given the flagging economy, the toll exacted by the pandemic on Nevada's tourism, the inroads the GOP had made with Latino voters, the fact that abortion access is already settled law in the state constitution and the fact that Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general who had won a statewide election before, lacked the kind of flaws that bedeviled other party candidates.