There is a “real possibility” the Republican Party could divide into two groups if GOP leaders don’t win the 2016 presidential election, the CEO and president of FreedomWorks said Friday.
Matt Kibbe responded to an analysis article published Thursday in the Washington Times that stated the party will go “the way of the Whigs” and formally split into a moderate party and conservative party if the GOP loses the next presidential election.
“You’re seeing this clash between the new generation and–to me, it’s not just the old wing of the Republican party versus the new wing–you’re really seeing a disintermediation in politics,” he said Friday on C-Span. “It’s already happened with the Democratic party. It’s happening with the Republican Party now. And grassroots activists have an ability to self-organize, to fund candidates that they’re more interested in, going right around the Republican National Committee and the senatorial committee.”
“Everything is more democratized, and Republicans should come to terms with that. They still want to control things from the top down, and if they do that, there will absolutely be a split,” he added.
Freedomworks is a conservative advocacy group that recently urged Republicans to vote against the deal that eventually ended the shutdown on Wednesday night.
Sixty-percent of Americans believe the country needs a third political party because the Democrats and Republicans aren’t performing sufficiently, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Related: Majority of Americans want a third party
Almost half–49%–of Democrats and 52% of Republicans agreed that a third party could represent Americans more accurately.
Michele Richinick