With less than three months until the 2026 midterm elections, the GOP appears to be flailing. Some of this is to be expected: Voter backlash against the party that controls the White House is the norm in the midterms; Donald Trump demonstrated in both 2016 and 2024 that while he can turn out enough votes to win a presidential election, a chunk of voters who back him also sour on him relatively fast once he’s actually in office.
Still, one additional worry is the GOP’s poor approval ratings on the economy, and voters shifting trust to Democrats on this key issue. It has a lot of conservatives, moderate Republicans, and right-libertarians asking what can be done to eke out victories and prevent a DSA-infused Democratic Party from taking the House, and potentially also the Senate, in November. Ultimately, while success will be exceedingly tough to manage, there are a few things Republicans could be doing right now to right the ship — or at least stop the bleeding.
Let’s start with policy. While few voters actually vote on it, they certainly respond to its effects. But what can have an almost immediate impact? The good news is that there are boatloads of executive actions the Trump administration could take right now to curb inflation, especially for everyday items like gas and groceries. The bad news is that several big items will be anathema to Trump because of his core ideology, and getting him to sign on will be almost impossible.
Let’s start with what’s easy…ish.
Trump should immediately order the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to shift their attention away from investigations focused on companies whose products are either free or very cheap — in other words, Big Tech — and get very visibly and vocally aggressive with big market players who are legitimately driving prices up across a variety of sectors.
Yes, taking Big Tech out of the firing line will piss off Vice President JD Vance and some of the “edgelord” constituency, and yes, this will be viewed as distasteful and gross by a lot of the Paul Ryan types who still make up much of the GOP donor class and some of the voting base who reflexively oppose antitrust action.
But for my money, it’s pretty hard to argue that big meat conglomerates like Brazilian giant JBS are not driving up beef prices, or that big hospital systems like New York-Presbyterian, OhioHealth (and countless other smaller systems like, say, UCONN Health in my own state, which was accused of trying to hike rates billed to United Healthcare by 45% in just one year and expanding specifically so it could bill higher rates) are not driving up underlying health care prices, which means higher insurance premiums. Big real estate players like Zillow have also been accused of pushing property prices higher. Federal probes of at least two of these entities are already underway.
But Trump could get noisier about this and use the bully pulpit more, including against drug companies that are pushing inflation-stoking price hikes. Will he be decried by his opponents for engaging in quasi-mob tactics to force price decreases or tapered future hikes? Sure. But this is one area where his Queens-guy brawler instincts might actually pay off for the American people. And haters gonna hate anyway, right?
There are other things Trump could do, too — though they’ll be tougher for him to get on board with, given his own policy preferences and firmly held beliefs.
First, Trump needs to nix all tariffs he has instituted, and go further, by rolling back inherited tariffs from prior administrations. In tandem with this, action should be taken to maximize the refund of all tariffs paid by consumers that were subsequently found to have been unconstitutionally levied directly to those consumers. It is readily apparent at this point that tariffs have driven prices higher and hit grocery prices particularly hard. So while this will be tough for Trump to stomach, it needs to happen.
Second, Trump needs to take a good hard look at Vance’s foreign policy push and consider unilaterally drawing an end to military action targeting Iran. This will sit poorly with a lot of big GOP donors, and some GOP voters (full disclosure: Three or four days out of seven, I’d probably even find myself in their ranks). It might not bring gas prices down, and if it does, there’s only an outside chance that would happen in time for November. But if gas prices are a serious worry (and they make items like groceries more expensive, too), then it needs to be given serious consideration.
Third, there is something else Trump could do right now to bring gas prices down — it just might piss off chunks of farm country. Higher-than-ever EPA-imposed ethanol blending requirements are currently estimated to be tacking on an extra 20 cents to $1.00 per gallon of gas while reducing efficiency. If this election is going to turn on gas prices, paring those requirements back could be a big political boon — and for the record, limited-government conservatives would love the policy, too.
A fourth item, trickier given President Trump’s hatred of windmills, is getting wind power online quickly to keep electricity bills low-ish as power demand surges. Right now, you cannot buy a gas turbine, with major manufacturers effectively sold out; a new gas plant won’t deliver power for a minimum of five years. A wind project comes online within 12 to 18 months. More wind could meet surging power demands and keep prices – and local taxes – lower in states like Texas, Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan.
But while all of these things are important, it’s also critical not to forget actual political strategy and tactics. If Democrats are trying to make this election about the cost of living, Republicans would do best to make it about something else — and on this front, goodness knows they are trying.
I’m unconvinced that much can detract from worries about inflation (I have maintained since I was a teenager that bad inflation numbers are the ultimate political death sentence, and the year 2024 bore that out well, globally). But it cannot be ignored that one reason why Susan Collins remains in contention in Maine is the voluminous dirt-digging and exposing operation that was stood up targeting Graham Platner, which has weakened Democrats in the state overall.
In Texas, God knows Ken Paxton is trying to make the race about Democrat James Talarico’s very fringe leftist views on cultural issues ranging from abortion to transgender kids. Will it work? Possibly not, because Ken Paxton is, well, Ken Paxton. And again, when every time you fill up your tank of gas or buy groceries, you are silently screaming at the bill, who does and does not believe in a nonbinary Jesus might seem just a tad irrelevant.
But shining a spotlight on Democrats’ own easy-to-understand liabilities (Platner’s alleged rape of an ex, Troy Jackson’s apparent ongoing intimate relationship with a cousin, Talarico’s very socially lefty views) could help on the margins. It might prevent a Democratic-controlled Senate, given how tight both the Maine and Texas races appear. It might help prevent Democrats from winning a huge House majority and make it narrower. That could be useful when Democrats try to impeach Trump again; they might not have the numbers within their own caucus to make it viable (if the John Fetterman types of the world prevail).
Shining a light on the role of the DSA and their arguable or overt antisemitism may also help in spots. For example, as the DSA has risen, Rep. Mike Lawler’s political fortunes have improved, even as the national environment for Republicans has worsened. The trend won’t be evident everywhere, but this liability could strategically be deployed in some races to improve Republicans’ performance.
Another thing Trump could personally do to try to turn the tide, or at least stem the losses, is spend down some of the very healthy funds currently warehoused in his various committees to aid vulnerable Republicans. In previous midterm cycles, the president has taken flak for being stingy with his own spending. Now in his last term in office, and facing a third, fourth, fifth, or even sixth impeachment — and potentially Democrats controlling the Senate, which would make a full impeachment trial a near-certainty — it might be time to stop hoarding campaign cash and deploy it freely to try to eke out some victories not currently in the cards.
The bottom line is that unfortunately, the result of November’s election is probably almost entirely baked in at this point, and no amount of policy or strategic changes will alter the outcomes. However, the real reason to make these changes is not political; it’s because making them will improve Americans’ lives by effecting better policy now, and — at least potentially — facilitating other, better policy outcomes in the future. That’s supposedly why politicians of all stripes and ideologies step up to serve, so hopefully it can be prioritized to a greater degree over the coming months.
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Liz Mair is the owner, founder and President of Mair Strategies LLC.
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