US President Donald Trump held a meeting with Republican officials today, after the election results. Photo / Getty Images
Republicans are reeling after Democrats swept off-year races in several blue and purple states across the United States yesterday, blaring a warning siren that their party may be in trouble ahead of the 2026 Midterm elections.
They appear divided on how to course-correct and what lessons the losses could hold for the Midterms.
Some strategists and officials believe US President Donald Trump needs to flex more muscle in upcoming contests to fire up the base and others believe congressional Republicans need to develop their own distinct brand on the economy ahead of 2026 in the face of Trump’s tariffs.
Trump, who faces low approval ratings in polls less than a year into his second term, offered his own prescription, blaming his party’s bruising election night losses on the ongoing US Government shutdown and urging Republicans to end the funding gridlock, which is the longest in US history.
Vice-President JD Vance said in a social media post that Republicans need to work harder to make a “decent life affordable” and also stop “infighting” with each other, even as he downplayed the significance of the losses.
“We have to get the country open. And the way we’re going to do it this afternoon is to terminate the filibuster,” Trump said during a meeting with Republican senators at the White House, referencing a procedural rule in the Senate that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.
“We will pass legislation that you’ve never seen before, and it’ll be impossible to beat us.”
Both parties have been reluctant to eliminate the rule, which historically has served as a potent check on the majority in a chamber where the balance of power frequently shifts.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) told reporters later that “it’s just not happening”.
The tone of urgency from the very top of the party comes as Democrats found success in key contests across the country - including in New York, New Jersey and Virginia - where they criticised Trump’s second-term agenda and vowed to pursue policies to address the high cost of living.
Yesterday’s wins also extended into key purple states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, where Democrats retained several state Supreme Court seats and ousted two GOP incumbents on a state utility board, respectively.
The electoral drubbing also raised an issue Republicans have continually faced in the Trump era: how to get Maga voters who reliably show up for Trump in presidential election years to turn out to vote for GOP lawmakers when Trump is not on the ballot.
“It just remains to be seen [whether] working class, low-propensity voters turn out to vote when Donald Trump is not on the ballot,” said Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri). “I don’t know. They haven’t yet.”
That could pose an existential issue for the party, with Trump in his last term as president.
One GOP strategist involved in Midterm races, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions, said the President must be more involved in the Midterm elections to fire up the base and make the case that he has kept core campaign promises such as securing the border.
“He has a platform and a megaphone that no candidate can out-rival,” the strategist said. “Having him bought in and on the ground is going to be very important.”
For his part, Trump did little to campaign or fundraise in many of the marquee races, including declining to personally get involved in the fight against the California ballot proposition that counters his redistricting push in Texas and other red states.
Republicans were significantly outspent in both Virginia, where top Republicans complained about the electability of Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, and New Jersey.
Another Republican strategist noted that the President’s campaign has raised about US$2 billion and must open up the coffers if they want to hold onto the House and Senate in 2026.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said he told Trump today that he is effectively on the ballot in 2026, because Democrats will try to impeach him if they win the House in 2026.
“The President needs four years to complete his agenda, not just two, so he’s in a very real sense on the ballot,” Johnson said. “He’s fiercely committed to us winning.”
Another key concern for Republicans is Trump’s approach to the economy.
The President has liberally levied tariffs on a host of other countries, increasing the costs of some goods in the US.
The Democrats who won - Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Zohran Mamdani in New York - all focused much of their campaigns on bringing down costs in their regions.
“The President just needs to tune back the dial on anything that’s going to increase the price to the consumer,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who is not seeking re-election, said of the tariffs.
Another GOP strategist involved in House races urged Republicans to “separate themselves from some of the Administration’s policies, like indiscriminate tariffs, that are increasing costs for the American people” ahead of the Midterms.
It is unclear if Republicans will focus on cost-cutting measures in the Capitol, which have largely ground to a halt because of the shutdown.
The benefits of the tax cuts bill that Republicans passed in July will not be felt until Americans do their taxes early next year, which some strategists say they hope will boost voters’ perception of Republicans on the economy.
Others said the party must do more to tackle costs legislatively to show voters they are trying to address the issue that Trump campaigned on in 2024.
Trump’s political strategist James Blair faulted some GOP candidates for not focusing enough on affordability in the face of Democratic candidates who centred their campaigns on those issues.
“Why did Zohran Mamdani do so well last night? He relentlessly focused on affordability,” he told Politico. “People talk about communists, they can say all these things, but the fact is he was talking about the cost of living.”
Republicans, while spooked by the strong showing from Democrats, also said that the Midterms are a year away and that they were prepared for the GOP to have a bad night given that many of the biggest contests were taking place in blue states.
They plan to tie Mamdani, a democratic socialist, to other Democratic candidates running in more purple races to try to paint them as radical.
Polls also show the Democratic Party overall has low approval ratings as they struggle to find their identity after Kamala Harris’ bruising loss to Trump.
“You go back to ’21 and Glenn Youngkin winning governor in Virginia and people thought, ‘Oh no, this is bad news for Democrats,’” said Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana). “But look what happened in ’22, it was not a good cycle for us.”
Daines ran the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm in 2024.
At today’s breakfast with senators, Trump urged the lawmakers to overhaul their chamber’s rules to be able to pass legislation without Democratic votes and deliver on more of his campaign promises.
He warned that if they did not move to eliminate the filibuster, Democrats would.
“And when they do [abolish] the filibuster, they’re going to pack the court,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative 6-3 majority.
Democrats have said they will not fund the government until Trump and Republicans agree to extend Covid-era subsidies to prevent health insurance premiums from increasing. GOP leaders say they will not negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government.
Democrats said the results showed voters are unhappy with Trump’s second term.
“What Democrats have done all across the country is lean into the issue of affordability because of the fact that America is too expensive, costs are too high,” said House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York).
“Donald Trump and the Republicans - not only have they not done anything about it, they’ve made it worse.”
- Hannah Knowles and Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
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