After Tuesday night’s election, Republicans are beginning to worry that the shock and adoration of President Donald Trump’s second term will plague them in the mid-2026 period.
Within the GOP, there is a growing sense that the party should return to basics and focus on the issues of pocketbooks that many voters sent to Washington to deal with. There are internal disagreements about the impact of Trump’s new tariffs announced Wednesday. Some say it will ultimately lead to a revival of American manufacturing, but even many of the president’s allies fear that prices could increase and crasked the economy.
Republican unrest triggered a landslide defeat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race and a decline in double-digit performance in Florida’s two special elections. Both echoed across the party on Wednesday as some elected officials and strategists from some Republicans and strategists called for Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk to adopt a more cautious approach.
Sen. Tom Tillis (RN.C.), one of the most vulnerable GOP senators facing reelection next year, said in an interview that Republicans must “measure wisely.” Tillis pointed to early opposition to then-President Barack Obama, which led to the 2010 wave elections where Tillis was subsequently elected to speaker by the new GOP majority, including a North Carolina home where Democrats lost seats in the House, Senate and state legislature.
“What we don’t want to do is overflow,” Tillis said. “We need to be careful not to do the same, and I think these elections will be like a power of attorney or almost a weather device to figure out what kind of storms will happen next year.”
Former GOP strategist and rural policy expert Brian Reisinger said Republicans running in the Battlegrounds race next year should pay attention to the disappointing outcomes of Tuesday and be careful of zeros to the bread and butter issues.
“This is just as clear as you’re trying to get – it rings like a bell, they have to talk about dealing with financial frustration and show that they have a plan for it,” he said. “There’s a lot of support in these communities because trade is getting tougher to reduce government spending, but if tariffs are out of control and there are no consequences on trade transactions, rural communities really get hit with it.”
But within the White House, authorities are shaking the ties of the election on Tuesday night. In Trump’s team’s view, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was never close. Republican Rep. Randy Fein is the weakest candidate to beat Josh Weill’s strong Democrats, and the other Florida seats previously held by Rep. Matt Getz (R-FLA) were two people approaching the White House.
“President Trump is the only Republican in nearly 40 years to destroy the Democratic blue wall, and it’s embarrassing to see them surge in football after a massive defeat in November,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.
That concludes it has reached outside of Trump’s allies.
“I didn’t go crazy about it. Republicans were somewhat panicked about them losing their seats in the House. “A victory in a special election is a victory, especially when this crazy external money is spent.”
And the White House will unafraid to unveil a new set of taxes on US global trading partners on Wednesday afternoon, leaving them unafraid to walk into the more politically sensitive seas.
Many of the president’s allies are sympathetic to his claim that tariffs encourage businesses to invest in domestic manufacturing and production, but they fear that by imposing new trade barriers, they cause short-term economic harm, raise prices, drive the US into a recession, and Republicans hang to control Congress in the medium term.
Four in ten voters see Trump as handling the economy and trade favorably. AP-NORC polls It will be held in late March.
“It’s this overwhelming fatigue with rising costs that is probably what keeps Trump from having a 50-55% job approval rate,” said GOP poller Robert Blizzard. “Republicans aren’t sure exactly what the positive impact on them in terms of tariffs is for most voters included at the end of the day.”
Democrats need to flip only a few seats to win a majority of the home. Their overperformance in Florida and the success of the democratic device running a rebel campaign in Wisconsin, have made Democratic operatives more and more bullish about using masks as medium-term thoughtful bogeymen.
“We’re of course going to make him the central figure as long as he uses chainsaws for all the programs his hometown relies on,” House leadership member Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) said in an interview.
Democrat leadership sees the opportunity to take up masks as part of their victory message.
“Republicans try to distance themselves from Elon Musk. It’s not working. It’s too late. You’re obsessed with your hips. You’ll feel the consequences of it, just like you did in Wisconsin last night.”
However, some Republican House members said they were not shocked by the outcome on Tuesday. And within the party there was little consensus on whether Musk would be responsible. Trump even told his inner circle that the tech billionaire would soon be retreating.
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said the results on Tuesday were “not surprising.” Rep. Derrick Van Olden (R-Wis.), who represents the top battlefield district, said the mask was a “shiny object” and Republicans did not vote for Trump in the year of the election.
“I think the results show quite a bit of what we normally see in special elections regarding the newly elected president’s party,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), another swing representative. After the November victory, “we were hoping to see an increase in DEM turnout and GOP carelessness.”
Among the indications of how much GOP lawmakers like the subject, Sen. Mike Round (Rs.D.) said he is looking at the Yankees instead of getting results.
But many of the parties are still worried. GOP poller Whit Ayres saw the Wisconsin outcome as a referendum for Musk, who has become a more central figure in the race than Trump himself.
“Elon Musk is hurting Donald Trump, and there’s no doubt about that,” Ayles said. Last week we looked at a survey released by his company that demonstrates public support for federal workers than CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX, who are tasked with novelty in the federal government.
The Republican said he should “take his money and tell him to go to Mars.”
Ally Mutnick, Lisa Kashinsky and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
