Friend,
There’s no sugarcoating it. Republican candidates got thumped at the polls.
Not only did Democrats win a huge majority in the House, but they have already flipped seven seats in the Senate.
The Republican candidate is trailing in MISSISSIPPI. Normally the senate race in Mississippi is called in favor of the Republican within minutes of the polls closing.
In many ways that race is emblematic of the 2026 election cycle.
When Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was asked by a reporter about the price of beef continually going up (it hit $6.75 a pound in January), she said: “You know, you have so many proteins to choose from.”
Her opponent turned the soundbite into a devastating ad where voters said they didn’t want to choose a different form of protein, they wanted to choose a different senator.
The election results were profound nationwide, including the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932. Voters in Texas elected a Democrat to the Senate and as Governor—by double digits. Blue wins from coast to coast.
What the heck happened?
President Trump got elected in 2016 and again in 2024. I don’t think anyone else could have done that.
After four years of Biden inflation as well as the wide open border, Trump called for a golden age of America—restoring jobs and increasing pay. He brought young people, working class voters, and Hispanics into his coalition.
What became of this mandate? The One Big Beautiful Bill was a good start. It kept in place the 2017 tax cuts and gave popular measures like no taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security.
But that was all undone at the grocery store and the gas pump. Voters most susceptible to these price hikes either stayed home or punished Republican officeholders.
According to exit polls, Democrats won young white men by 17 points. President Trump won them by 28 points in 2024. That’s a 45-point swing.
In the swing state of North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper was elected to the Senate with 60% of the vote, even as voters in that state approved voter ID, capping property taxes, and lowering income tax rates.
It is not that voters were voicing their support for socialism. It’s just that they wanted to rebuke the Republican Party—an unpopular Iran war, misplaced priorities, and concern about affordability.
Now we need some accountability and a course correction.
To his credit, soon-to-be-outgoing Speaker Mike Johnson has already announced he won’t run for minority leader of the Republicans in the House. There’s now a scramble for the top GOP post in the House.
But John Thune wants to continue leading Republicans in the Senate despite losses in North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, South Carolina, and Kansas. And he might lose Alaska and Mississippi, too, which—as of this writing—are still too close to call.
Vice President J.D. Vance had a sobering reflection on the election results that is worth reading in its entirety. He said:
“...The reason we lost is the war [in Iran]. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there…”
Simply put, the American people want their representatives in Washington to solve problems. They want an economy that works, jobs that pay, houses they can afford. They want to live the American dream.
As Kelsey Reinhardt warned back in February: “Inflation, food prices, and housing costs have strained households for years… A serious plan to restore affordability is not optional; it is foundational to the future of the country.”
When voters think the people in power aren’t solving their problems, they’ll boot them out. That’s what we saw last night. Republican leadership needs to acknowledge they got the message.
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