Trump's GOP grip questioned after midterm losses
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The gist
Democrats won upset after upset in deep-red states, and Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate.
Republican strategists are openly blaming Trump, raising questions about his hold on the party.
Background
Donald Trump is the US president, and the midterm elections were widely seen as a referendum on his second term. He intervened in Republican primaries, targeted critics of his campaigns, and held dozens of rallies in the final weeks for candidates, most of whom lost. Republicans had hoped for a showing like 2022, when Democrats under then-President Joe Biden lost just nine seats in the House and gained one in the Senate. The defeat has set off finger-pointing within the party and a likely debate over whether to move on from the Make America Great Again movement.
How it unfolded
- May 20, 2026Trump's grip on the GOP was on display in primaries across the country, with several Trump critics losing after the president targeted their campaigns.
- Aug 26, 2026Trump shared a profane post from a right-wing influencer saying the GOP did not grasp how badly it was faring.
- Sep 2026Trump turned his full attention to the election at the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas, dominating it with a rambling keynote speech.
- Nov 3, 2026Democrats won upset after upset in deep-red states like Texas, Kansas and South Carolina; Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate, described as their worst midterm showing in decades. Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, and Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history in Georgia.
- Nov 3, 2026Trump posted on Truth Social that he wasn't on the ballot and that if he was, 'we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!' In an interview with The New York Times before polls closed in parts of the country, he said 'I wasn't on the ticket' and that 'because I wasn't on the ticket, we couldn't get enough people out to vote.'
- Nov 4, 2026Republicans blamed Trump for the losses, citing his tariff policies, an unpopular war in Iran that drove up prices, support for weak candidates and an unconvincing final campaign tour.
- Nov 6, 2026Trump elevated Stephen Miller, the architect of some of his most contentious policies, to White House chief of staff.
Key terms
- midterm elections
- US general elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term, when all House seats and about a third of Senate seats are contested.
- primaries
- An election in which voters of a political party choose that party's candidate for an upcoming general election.
- Make America Great Again
- Political slogan and movement associated with Donald Trump's campaigns and his political base.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Trump
- Trump attributed the sweeping losses to not being on the ballot, told Fox News he was a 'little bit surprised,' noted the president's party typically fares poorly in midterms, and said Democrats 'fought hard' and the Republican base 'didn't like the candidates' he endorsed.
- Party
- Republican strategist Jason Roe called Trump's analysis 'ridiculous' and said the president was 'the engineer of the Republican collapse'; Texas lobbyist Bill Miller said 'It's on him' and called it 'a disaster of the first magnitude.'
- Allies
- Trump allies said it was unfair to hold him responsible, pointing to midterm history and weak Republican candidates in battleground states like Georgia, Michigan and Texas; Iowa Republican National Committeeman Steve Scheffler said 'I don't think his influence is slipping.'
- Analysts
- Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos called the results 'a full-blown repudiation of [Donald] Trump and GOP policies,' while colleague Martha Johnson said the Democratic wins point to 'problems with candidate quality on the Republican side.'
Still unverified
As of 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, winners in several key Senate races had yet to be determined, including in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan and Ohio.