Republicans in Washington warn Wall Street: The GameStop populists are more powerful than you think

WASHINGTON – Josh Holmes spent much of Wednesday in Washington watching the populist uprising over GameStop in the stock market with fascination – and a growing sense of familiarity.

He has seen this movie before.

Holmes, president of the issue management firm Cavalry, is best known as the former chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Holmes has spent his career among the Republican establishment which has spent the past five years getting steamrolled by the populist force of Trumpism – a grassroots movement that stormed the ramparts of the GOP, ousted the establishment and remade the party in its image.

Almost no one in the party saw it coming. When it did, few of the establishment players understood just how vast the force was that suddenly lined up against them.

On Wednesday morning, as GameStop shares continued to surge, Holmes took to Twitter and typed out a simple message: „Wall Street, welcome to our world.“

I called him to ask what he meant by that. „This is an event,“ he explained. „This is a social and economic moment in our society. There are a few times when you can definitely point to a moment and say society has changed, and this is one of them.“