Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador cautioned Republicans not to focus the November election playbook only on Obamacare, Wednesday, saying that would be a “recipe for losing.”
Republican David Jolly’s victory in the Florida special congressional election Tuesday night has been largely attributed to his Democratic opponent’s support for the healthcare law, a fact that would appear to bode well for Republicans who are relentlessly attacking Democrats on the issue heading into November.
“When I heard that Mr. Jolly had one the election, I said ‘thank you Obamcare,'” said Rep. John Duncan at an event with conservative members of congress Wednesday.
But Labrador said that even if the topic was helpful for Jolly on Tuesday, it would be problematic for Republicans if they were to focus solely on Obamacare later this year.
“In my opinion that’s a mistake,” he said at the same event.
“If we only talk about Obamacare, we’re going to have the same result we had in 2012, which is a lot of excitement, a lot of people on the night of the election thinking that we’re going to win the election being very disappointed the next morning,” he said. “So we already know what the recipe for losing is, and the recipe for losing is actually doing nothing and thinking that the American people are going to turn on Obama and the presidency.”
“We need to actually have that positive agenda moving forward with the issues that are important for the American people,” he said.