Both men, who are part of the RNC team tasked with reviewing the midterms, confirmed the discussion to NBC News. “We had a little bit of a debate between me and Henry Barbour over candidate quality versus candidate support,” Bowyer, who is also chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, a conservative group, said. And what we control here at the RNC is money that comes in and money that goes out. Many in the party have cited candidate quality as the chief reason for a subpar performance. … When people say candidate quality, some perceive that as a code word for Trump endorsement.

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