WASHINGTON — The president&#8217;s cabinet has been criss-crossing the country over the summer, taking 500 domestic trips to talk directly to the American people about the administration&#8217;s achievements ahead of crucial midterm elections that could derail its agenda. 
President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members made a total 500 domestic trips to between Memorial Day and Labor Day, touting the victories of the administration. The goal is to communicate what the administration is doing to “everyday Americans” across the nation in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, and for the trips to the heartland to “inform future policymaking,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told The Daily Wire. 
Cabinet secretaries went to Texas 46 times, to Pennsylvania 42 times, to New York 40 times, to Iowa 28 times, and to Michigan 25 times, a White House official shared. They also visited Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and New Jersey — with at least 10 visits to each state. 
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler had the most trips of the summer, a White House official shared. 
“President Trump has assembled the most talented Cabinet in history who work every day to implement his commonsense agenda and deliver wins for the American people,” said Wales, who added that their presence around the country provides &#8220;a strong contrast to the record of failure by radical Democrats on the border, inflation, and crime.”
“In nearly two years, the President has made our country stronger than ever before with the most secure border in history, the largest middle-class tax cut ever, trillions in investment commitments, more than a million jobs created, and the lowest level of violent crime in nearly a century.&#8221;
Trump has promised to hit the campaign trail for Republicans in 35 key races in the final weeks before Americans head to the polls, battling for the GOP in an election year in which history suggests the odds are against Republicans. 
“I’ll be with you 100%,” he vowed in early September during a White House Rose Garden dinner for lawmakers in competitive races. “We’re going to do something like I did for myself in the last presidential election. Four months out I said, ‘Ok. No days off.’ If I didn’t make four or five speeches a day, it was very bad. &#8230; All I’m gonna do is work, work, work, and fight, fight, fight, and win, win, win.&#8221;
The Cabinet travel comes with a flurry of announcements and new initiatives. Just this week, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel stopped in Kansas City, Missouri to announce major fraud victories. The same day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the United States <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-and-environment/4725701/chris-wright-energy-department-refill-strategic-petroleum-reserve-prices-soar/">will start refilling</a> U.S. emergency crude reserves in only a few months. Last week, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy launched a new space body and then announced that the Federal Aviation Administration will deliver $1.1 billion in airport improvement grants across the nation. 
While critics and commentators suggested that Republican lawmakers in narrow races should stay far away from the president, Trump is making the case that Republicans should want this administration&#8217;s track record on the ballot with them.
At the Republican Midterm Convention last week in Texas, Republicans highlighted the administration&#8217;s successes, arguing that Americans should vote for lawmakers who can help the president carry out his agenda. Trump himself told voters to behave as if it were a Trump election once again.
&#8220;I&#8217;m asking you to pretend that I&#8217;m on the ballot,&#8221; the president told the convention on night one. And on the second night, he joked to the crowd, &#8220;You know what happens if you don&#8217;t vote? You go to hell.&#8221;
His supporters argue that he is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, committed to maintaining the Republican majority in Congress. A White House official predicted to The Daily Wire that with Republicans in control during the next two years, there will be major legislative wins that couldn&#8217;t be achieved with a divided government.
&#8220;There are some voters that only he can motivate to get to the polls,&#8221; the White House official said. &#8220;And any Republican candidate would agree with that reality.&#8221;

Crowds And Politicians Gather At Annual Iowa State Fair In Des Moines

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Cabinet Hits The Road, Made 500 Trips Outside D.C. Ahead Of Midterms

2026 midterm election

cabinet

donald trump

politics

republican party

white house

In a jaw-dropping twist straight out of a bygone era when politicians of different parties actually liked each other, hoodie-loving Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) stunned the nation Wednesday night by making a surprise video appearance at the Republican Midterm Convention.
The purpose? To heap praise on his Keystone State colleague, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), leaving the Democrats clutching their stress balls and screaming into the abyss.
Throwing party orthodoxy right out the window, Fetterman delivered a fiery, unity-first endorsement for his Republican counterpart, proving that brotherhood in the Senate isn&#8217;t completely dead just yet.
“I’m gonna stand with America,” Fetterman declared in the video broadcast. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania. I’m proud to count him as my friend.”
In the video, Fetterman stood with the iconic Edgar Thomson Steel Works mill looming over his shoulder. The Braddock plant is the historic heartbeat of the Steel Valley in Allegheny County where raw steel is forged. He pledged to lock arms with McCormick and work directly with President Trump to safeguard the region’s legendary manufacturing heritage.
“Yes, he’s in a different party,” Fetterman stated, “but I’m proud to count him as my great friend.”
The cross-aisle friendship between the towering Democrat and the pragmatic Republican has been brewing for months, much to the chagrin of hyper-partisan zealots on the Left. The pair have forged a tight bond, co-sponsoring bipartisan bills and frequently taking to the airwaves together.
Their alliance kicked off with a surprisingly polite truce. After a hard-fought election cycle, the two sat down and agreed to put partisan bickering aside in favor of securing real results for working families, securing the southern border, and combating antisemitism. In late June, McCormick <a href="https://radio.foxnews.com/2025/06/25/sen-mccormick-big-beautiful-bill/">told</a> Fox News’ Guy Benson:
<blockquote>
We are definitely an odd couple. &#8230; It’s interesting for me too; he campaigned against me &#8230; I remember meeting him for the very first time at the Tree of Life five-year commemoration. He said, “Listen, this campaign will get spicy but it’s nothing personal.” I didn’t know quite what he meant by that &#8230; 
After I won, I went over to see him, and we sat down and we had a real conversation about how he was thinking about things, and he said, “Listen, I want to find ways to work together; we agree on a lot, including the fight against antisemitism, including the crisis at the border, the need to help working families in Pennsylvania. We disagree on a lot; let’s just find ways to work together.”
It’s been great. I trust him &#8230;. about a month ago he came under this vicious attack, an orchestrated attack in a number of different articles against him, and nobody was defending him. I sent him a note and said, “Listen, I’d like to come out and defend you but I don’t want to hurt you politically. Would you like me to hold back or would you like me to take it out there?” He said, “Nobody’s defending me. Get out there.”
</blockquote>
Fetterman recently announced he would <a href="https://local21news.com/news/local/sen-fetterman-says-he-wont-campaign-against-fellow-pennsylvania-sen-mccormick-john-thune-capitol">refuse</a> to ever campaign against McCormick in future races, calling him a &#8220;great guy.&#8221;
While Fetterman has repeatedly brushed off rumors that he might join the GOP, Senate Majority Leader John Thune openly admitted that Republicans would roll out the red carpet to welcome him into the GOP conference if he ever decided to make the leap.
Fetterman’s shocker at the Republican convention offered a refreshing, throwback reminder of how Washington used to work.

Fox Nation Hosts Debate Between Pennsylvania Senators John Fetterman And Dave McCormick

Fetterman Drops Bombshell On Opening Night Of Republican Convention

bipartisanship

dave mccormick

john fetterman

pennsylvania

Today and tomorrow will mark a historic milestone for the Republican Party: the first-ever midterm election convention, to be held in Dallas. President Donald Trump will headline the event, rightfully tout his accomplishments, and rally his party to hold the line against Democrats in November. But as we think about winning the next election, we also need to think seriously about who will lead the party in the years ahead, especially in Congress.
Young voters hate Congress, and the distaste is bipartisan. Congressional Democrats beat Congressional Republicans in <a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/52nd-edition-spring-2026">approval</a> among voters under 30 by just one point, 26% to 25. Yet the Left enjoys political momentum with this demographic. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become one of America’s <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/ratings/politicians">most popular</a> political figures. Zohran Mamdani has popularized socialism among a new generation of voters in New York, while Abdul El-Sayed is trying to build a similar movement in Michigan. The top two candidates <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/">raising the most money</a> so far this year are Jon Ossoff in Georgia and James Talarico in Texas. They are all millennials.
I fundamentally disagree with the policies and vision these far-left politicians offer. But I’m more than happy to argue with liberals. What disappoints me is watching Republicans criticize them without asking why they have been so successful in the first place, and doing nothing to counter it.
The Left understands that movements need effective messengers. They find young candidates, invest in them, and rally around those who connect with voters. Republicans need to get much better at doing the same.
I say that from experience. I served in President Trump’s first administration and have run for Congress myself. On the campaign trail, some of my most encouraging conversations were with seniors who wanted to see a new generation step forward and lead. That talent exists, but too often our political system makes it unnecessarily difficult for new voices to break through.
Instead, consultants put lipstick on the same old establishment pig, recycling candidates who are part of the very system voters are frustrated with. We forget a fundamental truth: the reason someone runs for office usually tells you a lot about how they will govern.
We should be looking for young, new people motivated by something larger than themselves, people who see public office not as the prize, but as a temporary position of trust. The goal shouldn’t be to manufacture more politicians. It should be to find leaders who would rather accomplish something meaningful than simply become someone important.
Those are the people we need to hear from. The conservatives who can win over younger voters are those who share their concerns: struggling to buy their first homes, start families, build businesses, and achieve the basic milestones that once defined the American Dream. A generation has watched the cost of living rise while the institutions meant to serve them feel increasingly disconnected from their lives.
That vacuum has created an opening for the Democratic Socialists of America. They speak directly to the frustration young Americans are feeling. They tell them the system isn&#8217;t working for you, and we’re the solution. The problem is that their prescription is more of what helped create the disease: bigger government, more spending, more regulation, and more government control.
The irony is that many of the same young people adopting a fashionable hatred of capitalism are surrounded every day by its benefits. They sip lattes from the backseat of an Uber while scrolling social media on an iPhone, all made possible by a free market that lets entrepreneurs take risks, investors to supply capital, and businesses to compete. Precisely because our free-enterprise system is so successful, we often forget how extraordinary its achievements are.
But we cannot take them for granted. President Trump understood this and has pursued an economic agenda to cut taxes and regulation, unleash American energy, encourage investment and manufacturing at home, reduce the size and cost of government, and make it easier for Americans to build, hire and create. It’s a free-market philosophy built around economic freedom, entrepreneurship, strong families, private property, and the opportunity to build a better life through your own work and ingenuity. This is how we show young Americans who feel their dreams slipping away that they can find a path to prosperity without the chains of socialism.
To communicate this message, we do not need to manufacture a “Republican AOC.” But Republicans need to accept that politics has changed and our approach to finding candidates needs to change with it. Younger Americans want leaders who sound like real people and have the courage to say what they believe. They want to know what a candidate is fighting for, not simply what they are fighting against.
To find those people, Republicans should look beyond the traditional political pipeline and take chances on people with different backgrounds and experiences. When someone demonstrates the ability to connect with voters and communicate our values, we should invest in them early through mentorship, infrastructure, training, and fundraising. If we make them spend 20 years climbing the political ladder, or encourage the wrong candidates to run, we shouldn’t be surprised when we end up with a government that feels increasingly inauthentic and disconnected from the people it is supposed to represent.
President Trump understood that millions of voters were desperate for someone who sounded different, fought differently, and was willing to challenge a political establishment they no longer trusted. As the president runs the show in Dallas this week, helping chart the course for the party he transformed, Republicans should remember the power of his example and look for more leaders willing to break the mold.
***
Catalina Lauf is a former Trump administration official, entrepreneur and former Trump-endorsed congressional candidate. She is the author of “Time to Choose.”

Trump voters in Fletcher, North Carolina.

How The GOP Can Reclaim The American Dream For The Next Generation Of Voters

alexandria ocasio-cortez

democratic socialism

young voters

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to campaign for Republicans in 35 competitive races during the final month before the midterm elections.
Trump made the pledge during a White House Rose Garden dinner attended by Republican lawmakers who are in competitive races, as well as Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and other members of the president&#8217;s cabinet.
In the hours before the event, lawmakers told POLITICO they hoped the president would open his war chest of more than $403 million to back their races. The dinner comes just a week ahead of the Republican National Convention in Dallas.
&#8220;I&#8217;ll be with you 100%,&#8221; he promised. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to do something like I did for myself in the last presidential election. Four months out I said, &#8216;Ok. No days off.&#8217; If I didn&#8217;t make four or five speeches a day, it was very bad.&#8221;
&#8220;I just said, &#8216;For four months, there will be no pleasure. I&#8217;m not going to go out and play golf, I&#8217;m not going to do anything. All I&#8217;m gonna do is work, work, work, and fight, fight, fight, and win, win, win,&#8221; he continued.
Trump recalled holding many rallies during this time period, sometimes three in a single day; in the last two days of the campaign, he held five rallies in one day and around four the next.
He said he would spend the final 30 days before the midterms campaigning in 35 close races where Republican candidates are tied, narrowly trailing, or holding small leads.
<div id="attachment_1171237" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-promises-100-support-to-gop-candidates-vows-to-campaign-in-35-places/president-trump-hosts-rose-garden-dinner-at-the-white-house-2" rel="attachment wp-att-1171237"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1171237" class="wp-image-1171237 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2293245603.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2293245603.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2293245603-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2293245603-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/GettyImages-2293245603-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>Guests listen as U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a dinner in the Rose Garden at the White House on September 02, 2026 in Washington, DC. President Trump invited Republicans in competitive races to a Rose Garden dinner ahead of the November elections. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)</div>
“It’s all about 35 races,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Some of you guys are leading by so much, Please don&#8217;t make me go to your area&#8230;Please don&#8217;t ask me to come to your area and make a speech, right? But I&#8217;m going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we&#8217;re going to see if we can get everyone elected.&#8221;
Trump said Republicans would make a major push during the campaign&#8217;s final month because voters might forget appeareances held too far in advance.
&#8220;You don&#8217;t want to go too much before that because people forget,&#8221; he said.
Trump also promised to hold telephone town halls in support of embattled candidates, saying that they &#8220;work amazingly.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to have to work,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to go up to Alaska for Dan Sullivan. Think of it-they have a man named Dan Sullivan running against him, the Democrats.&#8221;
The president joked to Attorney General Todd Blanche that it should be illegal for another candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against the Republican senator, suggesting that the Democrats were running their candidate to steal votes from the Republican candidate.
Trump specifically noted that he will be campaigning on behalf of congressional candidates, but not gubernatorial ones.
“I love you governors, but good luck,&#8221; he joked.
In closing, the president encouraged Republicans, saying: “We&#8217;ll defeat the Democrat communists, and that&#8217;s what they are.”

President Trump Hosts Rose Garden Dinner At The White House

Trump Pledges 100% Support To GOP In Midterms, Vows 35 Campaign Stops In Final Stretch

dan sullivan

The polls say Republicans are likely going to get absolutely shellacked in the midterm elections.
There are four specific reasons for that. There is also one specific reason why Democrats could totally blow it.
Here is the very short story: People want normalcy.
I&#8217;ve been saying this for years. In 2024, Trump was the normie candidate, and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were very not normie.
In 2020, people wrongly perceived Joe Biden as a normie, and so he won.
What people want in the United States from their politics is very simple: 1) a healthy economy, and 2) to feel secure.
That’s it. Every single poll is downstream of how people feel about those two things: economic success and the prospect thereof, and security.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2497?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
This is the reason why people institute governments. The Constitution of the United States essentially establishes a federal government capable of doing two things: protecting private property rights and ensuring national security.
Every election in the United States comes down to those two things in varying degrees: economic success and security. How people feel about whether those things are being achieved will determine whether the party in power retains power or not.
This brings us to the four reasons why the Republicans look like they&#8217;re going to have a bad election cycle.
<ol>
<li>The obvious off-year election dynamics. </li>
<li>President Trump is extraordinarily distracted. He is not focused on what people want him to focus on, and it feels like he is picking every apple from every tree at once. </li>
<li>Bad candidates</li>
<li>Most importantly, there are actual traitors in the GOP who want Trump and the Republicans to lose. They want House Speaker Mike Johnson to lose and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to lose. They&#8217;re ecstatic about the idea of a fractured Republican Party.</li>
</ol>
Some of these four things can be changed; some can&#8217;t and are basically baked into the cake.
We are now about two months away from the election. In the polling data, Democrats are about six and a half points up in the generic congressional ballot. The good news is that Republicans generally outperform the generic congressional polling in terms of seats.
That’s because you don&#8217;t vote for a generic Congress; you vote for your specific congressperson. So it may not be as disastrous as it sounds.
But in the Senate, things are looking pretty negative for the Republicans. North Carolina looks like it&#8217;s going to go for the Democrats’ Roy Cooper, who is up by eight versus Michael Whatley. In Texas, James Talarico, the self-righteous LGBTQ+ Howdy Doody doll, is up two against Ken Paxton.
In Ohio, Sherrod Brown, who had a formidable record of winning elections before he was defeated by Bernie Moreno in the last election cycle, is up about three points against Jon Husted.
In Maine, Troy Jackson — who is basically Graham Platner lite —  is up two versus Susan Collins. In Alaska, Mary Peltola is up two against Dan Sullivan.
If that polling were to hold, Republicans would lose the Senate, which again is insane considering that Trump won pretty much all of these seats, many of them by double digits, in 2024.
Republicans have a problem. Midterm elections are bad for the party in power. It is normal for the party out of power to look pretty good.
You can&#8217;t change the time. You can&#8217;t change the fact that when you&#8217;re the party in power, and people are in a bad mood, they tend to swing to the other party. It happens all the time.
But this brings up factor number two, the biggest factor in the problems for Republicans looking forward to the election. President Trump is not focused purely on the two things that matter: the economy and security. He&#8217;s been fragmented in his approach to both.
When it comes to politics, most people are not granular. Thus, what do Americans want? Direction. A narrative. They want a gestalt. They want a feeling of what is happening. They want solidity. They want predictability. They want to know where everything is going.
President Trump is famous for none of those things. He&#8217;s not famous for being predictable, solid, or narratively consistent.
There are benefits to that; because Trump is non-ideological, a so-called pragmatist, he is not wedded to any particular ideology. He will pick from various buckets, and his policy will be trial and error. He&#8217;ll try something. If it fails, he’ll try something new.
But the result is that when the president is running issue to issue, the administration&#8217;s narrative feels confusing. Take the economy. Right now, the American people are very concerned about the economy, even though it&#8217;s doing pretty well. Our unemployment rate remains low. Historically, our inflation rate is down in the mid-threes. We need to bring it down a little so it falls below the rate of wage growth. But we are by no means in a disaster-level economy here in the United States. Obviously, the stock market is doing quite well. We have a series of booming businesses.
But people feel discombobulated. They feel as though there&#8217;s a grab bag of various policies, none of them directed at a singular end.
So let&#8217;s say that the president was narratively focused, and said:
<blockquote>Listen, here&#8217;s what I want. I want economic productivity. We need to be the leading economy on planet Earth. The way that you become the leading economy on planet Earth is to drive up productivity, to drive up innovation. That means leaving money in the pocket of the American people so that they can build and consume. That means we&#8217;re leaving regulation. That means battening down the hatches against global opponents like China. But it also means cutting better trade deals with our friends, right? We have a singular end. That singular end is America out-producing, outcompeting, defeating everyone else on earth, and not just in a zero-sum way. Maximizing economic gains. Everything is geared toward that.</blockquote>
The president doesn&#8217;t tend to talk like that. And so what you end up with is a weird grab-bag of policy. On the one hand, he wants productivity, so he&#8217;s very pro data centers. But also he wants protection against the predation of global economics. He wants tariffs.
Does he want low prices because he says he wants inflation to go down? Does he want low prices, or does he want to reduce interest rates and increase prices? Does he want a trade war with Canada?
These are all discombobulated policies. Does he want regulatory relief, or does he want to take government stakes in private companies?
Does President Trump want to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse and put his vice president in charge of overseeing that? Or does he want family and friends making bank, including people who are associated with the administration?
Who is he going to deploy to discuss economics? Is he going to deploy Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, who is good at it, or is he going to deploy Peter Navarro and Howard Lutton to rant about tariffs and railroads?
That discombobulated posture has a cost. It’s okay for people to feel a little discombobulated when they feel like things are going swimmingly. But when things start to feel dicey, if they don&#8217;t feel like we&#8217;re being driven toward an actual end, it starts to feel like we&#8217;re at sea in choppy waters.
The same thing is true with national security. On certain issues, President Trump has been perfectly consistent. Illegal immigration is a national security issue. He&#8217;s been very consistent on it, which is why that has always been his best issue.
But on national security, it feels discombobulated. Does the president want to face down America&#8217;s enemies like Iran, or does he want to negotiate with them while ripping on allies? Does he want to take an anti-Russian position? Does he want to go to the EU and rip on the EU? Does he want to yell at the Italian Prime Minister? Does he want to oppose China in every aspect, because China has been interfering in a wide variety of ways in the American economy, even in our election system? Or does he want to make nice with China and talk about what a great friend he is with Jinping?
And even with regard to specific policies, even the ones that I like, what does he actually want to do when it comes to Iran? Does he want to treat Iran as an implacable foe, and does he want to bring them down the way that Reagan did the Soviet Union? Or does he want to pretend that they&#8217;re rational actors and deploy JD Vance to broker a crappy MOU?
Does he want to open the Strait of Hormuz or abandon it? Does he want to bomb Kharg Island, or does he want to send JD Vance to talk about how wonderful the Pakistanis are?
When voters feel confused and feel dyspeptic, they tend to turn to the other party.
Now again, there is some method to this confusion.
Historically speaking, for President Trump, his political approach has always been a laser pointer with a cat. The media are the cat, and he points the laser, and then they jump wherever he wants them to jump. When the seas are placid, that&#8217;s fine. But when the seas get choppy, you start to feel a little seasick. And right now people are getting sick of feeling whipsawed.
The third reason why Republicans have a midterm problem: You can&#8217;t pick crappy candidates. I understand a lot of Texans were unhappy with John Cornyn, that they felt he was too moderate, and he was too easygoing with Democrats. I did warn that Ken Paxton was a bad candidate, and I think it is fair to say that if you are running a competitive race with James Talarico in Texas, you are, by definition, a bad candidate.
Paxton’s basically counting on Texans to recognize that James Talarico is a radical leftist Howdy Doody doll. And that&#8217;s true. But you have to make that clear to people.
That may change. I expect Texans will revert to type and Paxton ends up in the Senate.
But it makes it a little tough when you run bad candidates.
The fourth reason, and this is the big one: Traitors in the GOP who are looking to undermine the GOP. There are people who are desperately desirous of the GOP failing.
They want the GOP to fail. Why? They look at Trump, and they see his term is going to end. They look at Mike Johnson, and Mike Johnson is a pretty traditional conservative. John Thune, he&#8217;s a pretty traditional conservative.
And they want that GOP to die. They want that GOP gone, and they see the GOP losing as the predicate to them fracturing the party and then taking it over.
These are people who actively want the Republican Party to lose. They&#8217;re not shy about it, by the way.
Those same people are running a gambit to take over the GOP from within. President Trump is pretty hawkish on foreign policy. They don&#8217;t like that. They don’t like the fact that the GOP, generally speaking, is free-market oriented.
What they want is a GOP that is big government in nature and significantly more sectarian and isolationist on foreign policy. That is what they want, and they&#8217;re being open about it.
That has electoral consequences, because obviously, in close elections, when “part of your party,” the part that is being appealed to by specific politicians in the administration, won&#8217;t build new audiences, but is going to try and get the Tucker Carlson audience or the Candace Owens audience — that’s a problem.
If you spend all your time appealing to the people who are actively saying they want you to lose, you&#8217;re probably going to lose.
Those are the four factors that are putting Republicans in a seriously bad position for the midterms.
This doesn&#8217;t mean Democrats can&#8217;t blow it; they are providing target-rich opportunities. One example is they decided to run a pro-terrorism candidate in Michigan, but apparently most of the Republican Party is spending its days not talking about that.
This is why a driven narrative would help. Americans are worried about security. That is a real issue when you run people for the Senate who are actively pro-terrorism.
Republicans have a lot to run on because the Democratic Party continues to turn to the Left.
The question is: Will they regain focus?

IMG_6619

How To Lose An Election In 60 Days

ken paxton

senate

Republican leaders are increasingly turning against data center development even as the Trump administration remains staunchly in favor of building them. 
Across red states, Republicans who once welcomed the economic investment promised by artificial intelligence infrastructure are beginning to pump the brakes as constituents raise concerns about electricity prices and water consumption. 
Texas State Sen. Charles Schwertner said a July hearing revealed growing unease among Texas landowners. “After hearing hours of testimony from Texas landowners, one thing is clear: landowners deserve a fair and transparent (Certificate of Convenience and Necessity). Texans’ property rights must be protected,” he <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/texas-transmission-lines-landowners-puc-permian-22366999.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said</a>. 
Republicans elsewhere are not just sounding the alarm, but introducing legislation to block the tech industry’s newest wave to please their constituents. Oklahoma State Senator Kendal Sacchieri <a href="https://oksenate.gov/press-releases/senator-sacchieri-files-legislation-address-unknown-impacts-data-centers-oklahoma">wants</a> to impose a three-year statewide moratorium on new data centers. “By pausing further development, the state can gain empirical evidence on how large-scale data centers interact with Oklahoma’s infrastructure and environment, and tailor regulations that protect residents and ratepayers without undermining economic prospects,” she said. 
In key 2026 races, battleground candidates like Mike Rogers in Michigan, Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin, and Ken Paxton in Texas have all signaled increased opposition to data centers in recent weeks.
But while Republican lawmakers face pressure to slow data-center development at home, they are receiving the opposite message from the top of their party. President Donald Trump has made expanding America&#8217;s artificial intelligence infrastructure a major component of his economic and national security agenda, but in July, the president seemed to offer his fellow Republicans a compromise to bring back home. Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/07/president-trumps-ratepayer-protection-pledge-secures-american-ai-dominance-protects-consumers/">hosted</a> an event where over 200 utilities, tech companies, and governors agreed to ensure artificial intelligence data centers are paying for their energy infrastructure without raising residential bills. This allows states to keep building data centers, but makes them pay for themselves by requiring them to BYOE (bring their own energy). 
One week later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was one of the governors who signed President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the July event, appeared to embrace that approach. Abbott announced that his administration would subject data centers seeking to connect to the Texas electric grid to an energy audit. Projects that demonstrate they can supply their own electricity could move through the review process, while those planning to draw heavily from the Texas grid could see their requests to build getting denied.
“Texans must come first,” Abbott <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-directs-comprehensive-data-center-audit">said</a>. “Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas must be denied connection to the Texas grid.” The governor did not say how long the review process would take. But the scale of the requests facing Texas regulators illustrates why the issue has become politically difficult to ignore.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is weighing connection requests that, if granted, would total more than five times the state&#8217;s record peak electricity demand, with roughly 90% of those requests coming from data centers. Texas lawmakers have warned that the “unprecedented load growth could endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid.” 
Abbott&#8217;s response seems to have left Texas business interests pleased but angered his rural base. Venture capitalist Jason Calacanis, who left Silicon Valley for Texas, emphasized that Abbott&#8217;s action was not a ban on development. “Governor Abbott announced this week an energy audit,” Calacanis <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVzYGVJ8zUk">said</a>. “Not that he’s going to slow things down, not that it’s a moratorium but that everybody has to go through an energy audit.” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller seemed to have the same read as Calacanis, calling Abbott’s latest move “all smoke and mirrors.” 
“He [Abbott] hasn’t done anything really,” Miller <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/06/sid-miller-republicans-elections-data-centers-abbott/">said</a>. “It’s all smoke and mirrors and campaign fluff to gain votes. It’s not about the people of Texas or protecting our grid or protecting our water or protecting our land base.”

Construction At The First Stargate AI Data Center

Republicans Are Turning Against Data Centers, Fast

data center

greg abbott

texas

President Donald Trump’s top political advisers are urging Republican candidates to make an unexpected shift in their midterm messaging, to talk more about health care and less about voter integrity.
The strategy could give Republicans a potentially powerful opening on an issue that has historically been a weakness for the party, particularly as Trump-aligned groups prepare to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2026 elections.
Trump campaign officials, including White House political director James Blair, pollster Tony Fabrizio and Senate Leadership Fund executive director Alex Latcham, briefed Republican senators and aides August 5 on polling showing which issues could give GOP candidates the biggest advantage, according to slides reviewed by <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/13/midterms-senate-health-care-republicans-trump">Axios</a>.
Health care emerged as one of the strongest messages tested. Republicans held a 46-point advantage when voters were presented with a message calling for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-growing-frustration-that-could-flip-races-and-neither-party-is-ready">greater transparency around health insurers</a>’ profits, claim denials and wait times while accusing Democrats of “lining insurers’ pockets.”
Other messages also performed strongly. Republicans held 44-point and 38-point advantages on banning congressional stock trading and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-opens-new-front-in-war-on-fraud-this-time-in-child-sex-changes">cracking down on fraud</a>, respectively. By comparison, the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, produced a substantially smaller 14-point Republican advantage.
The findings appear to be prompting Trump’s political operation to encourage candidates to broaden their focus as Republicans prepare for a midterm election in which health care is likely to be a central issue. The shift is notable because voter integrity has been a major priority for Trump and his political base, while Republicans have historically struggled to compete with Democrats on health care. Republicans now see an opportunity to turn that dynamic around by targeting health insurance companies rather than simply defending the party’s record on health policy.
The timing could also be significant as the Trump political operation prepares to begin spending heavily in competitive races. Blair told senators to expect money from MAGA Inc. and the Republican National Committee to begin flowing into midterm races, although he did not specify when or where the spending would begin. MAGA Inc. has more than $400 million available for political spending.
The RNC also has a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-democrats-cash-crunch-and-what-it-means-for-2026-and-beyond">massive financial advantage</a> over its Democratic counterpart, with roughly $128 million in cash on hand compared with just $16 million for the Democratic National Committee, which also carries roughly $18 million in debt.
A recent Supreme Court ruling further increased the potential value of the Republican Party’s cash advantage by allowing national party committees to make unlimited coordinated expenditures with candidates.
Taken together, the new messaging strategy and coming influx of Republican money could give GOP candidates a more unified campaign apparatus heading into November.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott said the meeting left him optimistic. “Good news coming our way is what they basically indicated,” Scott told Axios.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Top Trump Officials Sound Alarm Over GOP Midterm Strategy

election strategy

healthcare policy

After 11 frustrating years of losing intramural conservative debates, the pre-MAGA, Never-Trump Washington Right has finally found an opponent worthy of its intellectual firepower: imaginary congressional staff assistants.
That’s the cringey truth behind Politico Magazine’s recent &#8220;<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/08/01/heritage-foundation-young-republicans-groypers-hiring-01006937">exposé</a>&#8220;: “GOP Staffers Say the Party Has a Groyper Problem.” Nothing in the article’s 2,300 words remotely supports the headline’s assertion, let alone the bizarre anti-JD Vance smear campaign orchestrated in its wake.
The real story here isn’t about young conservatives at all, but the vindictiveness of self-important policy wonks they no longer listen to.
For the 99% of Americans blessedly ignorant of the term, “groyper” refers to the antisemitic, misogynistic, white-identitarian followers of Gen-Z internet performance artist Nick Fuentes. The corporate media and the establishment Right have desperately tried to link the odious Fuentes to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. But both sides refuse to cooperate.
Fuentes hates Trump for being too friendly to Israel. He hates Vance because his wife Usha is of Indian descent and his children are biracial. The feeling is mutual. Trump and Vance have both publicly rejected antisemitism. Vance has <a href="https://unherd.com/2025/12/full-transcript-jd-vance-on-american-identity/?edition=us">gone further</a>, telling off Fuentes directly and declaring that antisemitism and ethnic hatred have no place in the conservative movement.
As someone who works with congressional and administration staff every week, I know firsthand that the mutual disdain between MAGA patriots and groyper losers is reflected in hiring decisions on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. (The only groyper I have ever encountered couldn’t get a job in Donald Trump’s Washington.) Even the article that ignited last week’s moral panic acknowledged that the “true scale” of the groyper problem could be “negligible.”
So where did Politico get the idea that “the GOP’s young D.C. professional class” is crawling with “groypers”? According to the article, from four sources: an “anonymous conservative,” an anonymous “senior GOP congressional staffer,” a college professor with no apparent connection to Capitol Hill or the Trump administration, and a former Heritage Foundation scholar angry that the famously pro-life institution wants their interns to be pro-life. If that seems thin evidence to smear an entire generation of honest, idealistic conservative professionals as bigots, wait ’til you see how they try to square the circle.
Among Politico’s “GOP Staffers” who allege this “groyper problem,” you see, a “groyper” doesn’t have to be an actual antisemitic, white nationalist Fuentesite freak. No, the term “is also used as a catch-all term of abuse for young, anti-establishment” conservatives. To Washington’s Establishment and some on the libertarian Right, dissatisfaction with Republican elites’ 21st-century economic, foreign, and domestic policy failures — a dissatisfaction shared by <a href="https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/53800-distrust-elites-experts-establishment-widespread-among-americans-december-26-29-2025-economist-yougov-poll">roughly 90%</a> of the American people — makes someone a racist, antisemitic monster.
There is no polite rebuttal to this disgraceful rhetorical gambit other than to say: thank God Donald Trump kicked these people to the curb.
Of course, that’s what this is really about.
Within hours of the Politico article’s publication, social media trolls were tying the GOP’s phantom “groyper problem” to Vice President Vance, whom they hate almost as much as real groypers do. Trump’s victory and Vance’s ascendance have fundamentally changed the Right over the last decade. One of those changes has been the marginalization of once-influential policy “experts.”
The Groyper Gambit is an attempt by the old corporate-globalist-neoconservative GOP to win back the party they fumbled — not by persuading dissenters but by declaring dissent to be illegitimate.
James Lindsay, once-feted anti-woke academic, called Vance-aligned conservatives &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/ConceptualJames/status/2083940423429496834?s=20">little sh*ts</a>&#8221; and blamed a phantom “Groyper infestation of D.C.” <a href="https://x.com/ConceptualJames/status/2083935970324348960">on Vance directly</a>. Phil Magness of the libertarian Independent Institute accused a conservative law student of being &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/rachelbovard/status/2082992685204344904?s=20">groyper curious</a>&#8221; because he was Catholic and a Vance supporter.
This is the tell. Critics of JD Vance would rather traffic in outrageous labels — “groyper,” “socialist,” “authoritarian” — than debate the underlying issues, because those issues are broadly supported and politically potent. Arguing against them on the merits is a losing proposition. Pathologizing the people who hold them is easier.
Robust policy and political disagreement within the Right is fine and to be expected. Turning differences of degree into existential accusations, or dismissing ideas like stronger antitrust enforcement as “socialism,” is absurd and deliberate. You can dislike and disagree with JD Vance all you want. Suggesting he is a groyper is simply a lie – and a cowardly one, at that.
The crux of the controversy is that Vance’s pro-family, “common good” conservatism and vital-interest-oriented foreign policy are popular. They are shared, in one form or another, by every young national star in the GOP, from Secretary of State <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4vtkUnR_gs">Marco Rubio</a> to Florida Governor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWHOKm2Lmfs">Ron DeSantis</a>. They are also enthusiastically supported by almost every young Republican staffer in Washington.
And with good reason. Patriotic young conservatives who came of age in the Trump Era spent 18 years in schools run by woke-era DEI Marxists. They know the New Left hates America as much as groypers hate Vance. They came to Washington, D.C. to save the country and to build a new Republican Party that understands the stakes of the fight, and how to win it.
Yes, conservative staffers today are different. They know the old GOP dispensation’s ideas, leaders, and policy wonks had their chance, failed, and are not up to the task ahead.
The young professionals I work with every day are decent, principled, patriotic public servants. They make me optimistic about the future of the Right — never more so than when contrasted with the gutter behavior of the bitter “grownups” who smear them for clicks.
***
Rachel Bovard is Vice President of Programs at Conservative Partnership Institute.

Fake news concept. Halftone woman with eyes covered by hand. Information overload. Influence of social media

Never Vancers’ Disgraceful Groyper Gambit

groyper

jd vance

nick fuentes

opinion

politico

President Donald Trump on Thursday downplayed a report suggesting he had already settled on Vice President JD Vance as his preferred successor to carry his MAGA movement forward. 
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/08/06/trump-tells-donors-we-need-elect-jd-vp-weighs-his-future/">The Washington Post</a> reported Thursday that Trump has privately encouraged donors to support Vance&#8217;s future presidential ambitions, citing anonymous sources familiar with the conversations. 
“At the end of the day, we need to elect JD,” Trump reportedly told donors during an Oval Office meeting two weeks ago, according to the report. 
The outlet also cited six additional “Trumpworld advisors” who anonymously said they did not believe a Vance endorsement was a done deal.
“Anyone assuming it’s a lock is just getting way ahead of themselves, or just doesn’t know the president very well,” one Trump administration official told The Post. 
Hours later in the Oval Office, The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese posed the question to Trump directly. 
“No. I heard about it a little while ago. I think he&#8217;s great,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2085462419598614610?s=20">said</a> of Vance. “We&#8217;re way too early to even be thinking about that.”  
The Post reported that Trump has grown increasingly impressed with Vance&#8217;s performance as vice president, highlighting his role in brokering the Iran ceasefire that later collapsed, leading a federal task force targeting fraud, and entering the media lion&#8217;s den to promote his book and Catholic conversion.
Vance has not publicly confirmed whether he plans to run for president. Some early polling suggests Vance is the frontrunner, though other potential contenders have gained ground.
After the vice president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio polls the strongest among Republican primary voters, according to the most recent survey data.  A New Hampshire poll released in July showed support for Vance slipping significantly in the Granite State. About 36% of likely GOP primary voters backed Vance, down sharply from 53% in February. Rubio appeared to capitalize on the shift, more than tripling his support from 7% to 26%, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-2028-poll-just-shook-up-both-parties">The Daily Wire reported. </a>
While Vance&#8217;s support has softened in some early-state polling, he continues to lead nationally. The <a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/republican-primary/2028/national">RealClearPolitics </a>polling average still shows Vance with a commanding 18.2-point national lead over a hypothetical field of Republican rivals, including Rubio, Donald Trump Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Speculation about Trump&#8217;s eventual endorsement has also been fueled by divisions within the conservative movement over U.S. policy toward Iran. In a Wednesday <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2085148515593064844?s=20">interview</a> with FOX News, Vance denied any daylight with the president over foreign policy. 
“The president runs this administration. He is the very top of the administration. He makes orders. We, of course, have debates and conversations about what exactly we should do. But when the president of the United States makes a decision, we are unified in this administration in carrying out that mission,” Vance said.

Late Senator Lindsey Graham Memorialized In Washington DC

Trump Pushes Back On Report About His Political Heir

2028 presidential election

marco rubio

The Republican primary in Michigan&#8217;s 8th Congressional District went a little bit sideways when President Donald Trump&#8217;s chosen candidate lost — to a candidate who&#8217;d suspended his campaign a month earlier.
Trump endorsed U.S. Navy veteran and former federal law enforcement officer Amir Hassan, but after votes were tallied, Decision Desk <a href="https://x.com/DecisionDeskHQ/status/2084854764135711197">called the race</a> for retired General Motors engineer and small business owner Thomas Smith — who had stopped campaigning mid-July.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5986241-mcdonald-rivet-hassan-michigan-house/">Smith won</a> with 50% of the vote, and Hassan walked away with 33%. Al Lemmo, to whom Smith gave his endorsement when he suspended his campaign, commanded 16% of the vote. Lemmo is a pro-life activist and retired mechanical engineer with the U.S. Army’s Tank‑Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC). He attacked Hassan during the campaign by claiming that he was a &#8220;Trojan horse&#8221; candidate and was previously a Democrat.
On July 18, Smith <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/04/amir-hassan-thomas-smith-al-lemmo-gop-primary-congress-michigan-flint-saginaw-midland/91157512007/">posted a video</a> declaring that he was putting his full support behind Lemmo. At the same time, he notified the Federal Election Commission — in a handwritten note, explaining he&#8217;d had difficulties logging into the system — that he planned to file his next report by the deadline he&#8217;d received in an email.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Tom Smith, the candidate who dropped out of the <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/MI08?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MI08</a> Republican primary but is still poised to defeat Trump-endorsed Amir Hassan, sent this handwritten note to the FEC less than a month ago: <a href="https://t.co/xllPk5ZwTH">pic.twitter.com/xllPk5ZwTH</a>
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) <a href="https://x.com/PatrickSvitek/status/2085008011706163379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But because Smith withdrew from the race after the deadline, his name was not scrubbed from the ballot — and the rest is history.
In a statement issued Wednesday morning, a surprised Smith told supporters that he was &#8220;humbled and honored that Republicans have chosen me to take the fight to Kristen McDonald Rivet.&#8221;
&#8220;I look forward to working with Speaker Johnson and the entire Republican team to expand our House majority and advance President Trump’s America First agenda to lower costs for working families and make America affordable again,&#8221; he added.
Michigan&#8217;s 8th Congressional District is just one of a number of seats Republicans are hoping to flip in their efforts to retain control of the U.S. House. McDonald Rivet, a first-term congresswoman, won the open seat in 2024 when she defeated Republican Paul Junge by over six points — but Trump also won that district the same year.

United States Conservative Crisis

Trump-Backed Candidate Loses Primary To Guy Who Quit The Race A Month Ago

kristen mcdonald rivet

michigan 8th congressional district

Despite the many current challenges America is facing — and the propaganda media’s constant efforts to attack the administration and conservatives — Republicans have a tremendous opportunity before them in November.
The key to a Republican victory will be making the midterm elections about one question: Which party is better for you, your family, and America? This is the path to an historic victory for President Donald J. Trump and Republicans in 2026.
While the question is simple, convincing Americans to choose the GOP will be difficult. After all, the Left-wing media has spent 11 years emphasizing every negative story about President Trump and Republicans — and downplaying all positive ones. Similarly, the Democrats’ disdain for Trump has led them to stop him at all costs — even if that means undermining our security, weakening our economy, or disrupting our government’s ability to function.
Winning requires Republicans to understand and communicate four big ideas about the nature of reality and the facts and truth of the situation. The GOP should treat each as its own campaign.
The Socialists Are Taking Over
The greatest vulnerability of the 2026 Democrats is the degree to which they have become the party of big government socialism and weird values. The pattern of Democrats moving toward openly socialist, anti-American positions is building. Consider the spate of recent candidates in New York, including Darializa Avila Chevalier, who boasted about using the American flag as a napkin. This is creating an opportunity to brand the Democrats for a generation or more as unelectable.
Republicans have a simple case to make: Big government socialism does not create jobs, increase wages, train people for the future, make people healthier, or simply work at a practical level. It just runs out of other people’s money to spend. Of course, establishment Democrats and the media are trying to downplay this shift in the party. But when establishment Democrats get to Washington, they talk and vote like big government socialists to appease the activist fundraising apparatus.
Even those who are inoculated from the socialist strain would rather stop Trump than help Americans.
We Must Bring Down Costs
Republicans must have an intense, compelling, focused plan for affordability and jobs with good incomes. A recent Pew Poll found that 73% of Americans said healthcare costs were a major problem, 66% said food and consumer costs were a problem, 62% said housing affordability was a major problem. Ultimately, Republicans must go where the people are — not try to get people to come to where their campaign would be comfortable. A Republican Affordability and Jobs Plan is a major building block of victory. Part of it also must describe what Democrats are doing to kill jobs, raise prices, and undermine affordability — while outlining what President Trump and Republicans have done to help raise family incomes and create opportunity and jobs.
Be the America Party
President Trump’s focus on patriotic and foundational cultural issues and emphasis on America and the Freedom 250 project have set the stage for Republicans to become the American Party (much as Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party became the American Party, which marginalized the Federalists). A positive President Trump-Republican campaign emphasizing popular 70% to 90% issues that the Democrats demonstrably oppose — and appealing to everyone who cares about those issues — would strengthen the image of the Republican Party and isolate the Democrats.
The Healthcare Opportunity
New science, technology, and understanding of how to stay healthy are creating an opportunity for a health-oriented Republican program to create a totally new dialogue around healthcare. Efforts to make the healthcare system more transparent and understandable to everyday people will expose waste and abuse and bring down costs. Healthcare is a matter of life and death — and makes up about 18% of the national economy. It is the highest value for most Americans at a practical level. If Republicans can become the party of a healthy America, we would create an opportunity involving every life in our country.
Because this is the boldest and newest development, it will take more training for members, candidates, staffers, committees, and campaigns to talk about it comfortably. It offers an enormous opportunity to work with the American people in a positive program that dramatically broadens Republican appeal and shows us as the caring, compassionate, problem-solving party that we are. In the process of helping people lead healthier, better lives, we would also liberate several trillion dollars now tied up in wasteful, bureaucratic, bad policies, and obsolete approaches.
It has always been harder to govern than to campaign. This is why historically the party in the White House normally loses seats in the midterm elections. If the liberal media and the Democrats can make 2026 a referendum on the current state of things, they might be able to win a normal off-year victory.
However, if Republicans decisively win these four arguments, 2026 will be one of the most historic elections in our 250-year history.
***
This is republished with permission from the author. The original can be found <a href="https://www.gingrich360.net/p/the-republican-opportunity-in-2026">here</a>.
Newt Gingrich was the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He is the creator of the <a href="https://www.gingrich360.net/">Gingrich360</a> newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich.

United States Election

Newt Gingrich: The 2026 Strategy That Could Save Republicans From Total Disaster

2026 Midterms

affordability

DW Opinion

economy

healthcare

trump administration

A bipartisan Senate bill aimed at keeping Chinese-made vehicles and automotive technology off American roads moved one step closer to becoming law on Wednesday after clearing the Senate Commerce Committee with unanimous support.
The Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026, sponsored by Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), would prohibit the import, sale, and operation of vehicles manufactured by China and other designated foreign adversaries while also banning Chinese-developed connected vehicle technology, including software and data systems, from American roads.
Supporters argue the bill is necessary not only to protect the American auto industry from heavily subsidized Chinese competition, but also to address national security concerns posed by increasingly software-driven vehicles capable of collecting vast amounts of data on their owners.
&#8220;Chinese cars are surveillance packages on wheels, with the ability to collect on American citizens and transmit that data back to Beijing,&#8221; Slotkin <a href="https://www.slotkin.senate.gov/2026/07/22/slotkin-moreno-bill-to-protect-national-economic-security-from-chinese-vehicles-advances-unanimously/">said</a> after the bill advanced. &#8220;The Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s playbook of heavily subsidizing their product and underselling the competition puts Michigan&#8217;s auto industry and millions of American workers at risk.&#8221;
Moreno <a href="https://www.moreno.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/moreno-bill-cracking-down-on-chinese-vehicles-passes-out-of-committee-unanimously/">echoed</a> those concerns, arguing that Beijing&#8217;s ambitions extend beyond simply competing in the global auto market. &#8220;China&#8217;s auto industry was not built to compete, it was built to destroy American manufacturing, gut the middle class, and undermine our national security,&#8221; Moreno said. &#8220;For decades, D.C. globalists propped up Chinese businesses — now it&#8217;s time for Congress to stop this cancer before it spreads through the American auto market.&#8221;
The legislation would significantly expand upon regulations adopted during the Biden administration that effectively blocked Chinese automakers from entering the U.S. passenger vehicle market. Rather than focusing solely on connected vehicle technology, the bill broadly prohibits Chinese-manufactured vehicles and connected components throughout the production, importation, and sales process.
Moreno has argued that modern automobiles function as &#8220;roving electronic devices&#8221; capable of collecting sensitive location, infrastructure, and behavioral data while also allowing remote access to critical vehicle functions such as steering, braking, and acceleration. The bill also seeks to protect domestic manufacturers from what lawmakers describe as China&#8217;s strategy of flooding global markets with heavily subsidized vehicles sold below market prices.
The measure received backing from major American automakers, labor unions, steel manufacturers, and industry groups. General Motors praised the legislation for protecting American manufacturing while maintaining that U.S. automakers &#8220;can compete with anyone in the world when we are given a level playing field.&#8221;
Ford likewise commended the bipartisan effort &#8220;to protect the U.S. industrial base,&#8221; while Stellantis said the legislation addresses &#8220;important issues related to connected vehicle security and fair competition.&#8221;
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain also endorsed the proposal, arguing that rebuilding American manufacturing requires preventing further offshoring of the domestic auto industry. &#8220;Our national and economic security relies on a strong U.S. auto industry,&#8221; Fain said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t keep selling out the U.S. working class to transnational corporations that have no respect for labor rights.&#8221;
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents major automakers, warned that Chinese manufacturers are already flooding overseas markets with low-cost vehicles and said the legislation sends &#8220;a clear message&#8221; that the United States will not allow the same strategy to undermine the domestic market.
The bill was not without debate during Wednesday&#8217;s committee markup. Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed concerns over a provision barring automakers with more than 15% Chinese ownership from selling vehicles in the United States, warning the language could inadvertently affect companies such as Mercedes-Benz, which has substantial Chinese investment despite maintaining significant American manufacturing operations.
Moreno responded that the ownership provisions would not take effect until 2030 and include a waiver process to address companies caught by the threshold. He emphasized that lawmakers had no intention of preventing Mercedes-Benz from selling vehicles in the United States.
An amendment to soften the ownership requirements was ultimately withdrawn, while another amendment that would have narrowed the bill&#8217;s definition of connected vehicle hardware failed on a bipartisan vote.
The legislation now awaits consideration by the full Senate.

Menu