WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Joe Gruters told Breitbart News exclusively that he is “cautiously optimistic” about Republican chances to hold their U.S. House and U.S. Senate majorities next November.
In a lengthy interview at RNC headquarters on Capitol Hill, Gruters explained that if Republicans execute on the mechanical operations of voter turnout and election integrity, he is confident they can defy historical trends and hold their majorities. What’s more, Gruters said that Republicans actually having a leader in President Donald Trump — as compared with Democrats who are essentially leaderless and visionless as radical leftists seize power in their party — bodes well for the chances of GOP candidates up and down the ticket.
“We’re two and 39 in off cycle elections — that’s the incumbent party in charge of the White House. But the difference is we have a president that’s as committed to winning as they get,” Gruters told Breitbart News. “All the guy does is win. He’s a winner across the board, and I think that the candidates are going to be able to ride on his back all the way through the midterms. We have a solid strategy from using his positions that he’s championed with the Big, Beautiful Bill. If you look at what he’s been able to accomplish over the first 250 days — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, additional child tax credit, all the small business advantages we got in terms of depreciation, expensing and helping these businesses across the country. Then you look at the fact that we have the president of peace with peace deals. Now you have the fact of his efforts to go in and clean up the cities, from a law and order perspective. If you go in and look at what he’s done across the board on all fronts. But from a strategy standpoint it’s very simple. From a party standpoint, we’re going to focus on the fundamentals, and that’s registering voters, turning voters out, and protecting the vote. Election integrity is by far what the president talks to me most about, and trying to make sure that we get everything right. We have 92 active lawsuits across the country. We used to play more of a reactive game, but now we’ve been a lot more active and going after some of the cases where we think we win and where we have to defend. That’s red states, blue states, purple states, and that’s dealing with cleaning up voter lists, making sure we have equal access for poll watchers and workers, making sure we don’t allow illegal aliens to vote, whether it’s any type of ballot integrity issue itself, on and on and on. We’re not facing the DNC in these lawsuits. We’re facing these third party groups, these left-wing organizations — and it’s the Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, that’s going out there and doing all that work on behalf of the overall umbrella.”
Holding the U.S. House majority will be the most difficult task for Republicans next year, as an already-slim majority faces the historical trends of a midterm election usually seeing the pendulum swing back the other way. But, Gruters made it clear he thinks this is doable for the GOP in 2026. As he sat with Breitbart News, he held up a list of what he said were 46 competitive House races nationwide. Most of the districts on that list are seats currently held by Democrats. Before even discussing the mid-decade redistricting battles playing out right now, if Republicans can hold some of their tough-fought seats and flip some Democrat-held seats, they could be in a position to pull off mission impossible in Congress. Throw in the redistricting fights playing out right now coast-to-coast and the Republicans can grind this out and beat the Democrats.
“We have on the House side, you could say, we have the Trump 13,” Gruters said. “There’s 13 seats that the president won where we have Democrat members of Congress. It’s a matter of fact, what this list is, is that we have 46 competitive races. But we have a lot of races that Trump won, 13, and we have all these other competitive races. There’s only three, the Kamala-won [districts] that we have Republican congressmen. So those 16 are probably the most competitive races in the country. For us, it’s all about candidate recruitment, making sure we find the right candidates in the right races. We’re actively involved with that. Then you can see everything that’s happening with redistricting. You know, [a top RNC staffer] was out there in Indiana with the Vice President, working on some stuff on behalf of the party. But we’re making sure that we leave no stone unturned… and we’re working every single angle to make sure that we put ourselves in the best possible position to win.”
As for the U.S. Senate, Republicans have a 53-seat majority right now meaning Democrats would need to net at least four seats to retake it — a monumental task. Republicans are aiming to hold seats in Maine with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and in North Carolina where incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is retiring, giving way to former RNC chairman Michael Whatley running for the Senate. If those seats hold, Republicans have pickup opportunities in Georgia against Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) along with the retirements of Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in Michigan and New Hampshire respectively.
“On the Senate side, we have a couple of must-holds with Collins, Whatley — I think they’re all relatively safe,” Gruters told Breitbart News. “I can go into those individual races, if you want. But then I think we got three great pickup opportunities in Georgia, which the primary obviously isn’t decided, in New Hampshire, and then [Mike] Rogers in Michigan. And so we have great opportunities on the Senate side. We have a lot of great opportunities on the House side as a result of some of our candidate recruitment. The big thing that’s a big difference between the first administration and this administration is everybody is working in conjunction with each other. We take all of our orders from the White House. I say I’m the chairman of the party, but the President’s leading this party. Everything that we do is in conjunction with him and that goes to say the same with the RGA and NRCC and NRSC — we all work together on a daily basis and so we’re not going to have a duplication of services or campaigning. We are going to make sure we’re firing on all cylinders. We maximize the dollars that the President has raised and that we’ve raised, and I think that although I’m cautiously optimistic about the midterms, we obviously have to do everything right. We have to continue to raise money. We have to make sure we do the fundamentals right in terms of getting our voters out and protecting the vote. And if we do everything right, we could buck the trends and end up winning.”
As of when Breitbart News sat down with Gruters last week in DC, Republicans have also been blowing away Democrats in the fundraising space and Gruters credited Vice President JD Vance who’s serving as Finance Chairman of the RNC as playing a big role in making that happen.
“On top of that, we’re raising a ton of money. We have JD Vance as our Finance Chairman — the first time a vice president has ever done that. He’s out there at least a couple of times a month on our behalf,” Gruters said. “And as a result, we are sitting on $86 million I think — maybe it’s $89 million — right now in cash on hand versus Democrats’ $14 or $15 million. They could equalize that, but we’re out there every day working it.”
Gruters’ history before Trump asked him to lead the RNC was firmly in the grassroots, and particularly in ground game politics. He told Breitbart News he got his start years ago as a volunteer door walker when he was in high school, then moved up the grassroots ladder going so far as to even label himself “the grassroots chairman.”
“You got to look at — where are we going to best spend our resources? I’d say it’s about the matter of winning,” Gruters said. “It’s about holding the majority and making sure the President has four full years. We have a national grassroots call later today that we’re going to have, and it’s with the focus of doing exactly that. We have a lot of friends and allies out there that do similar things, and we welcome them all because anybody who advances our cause to victory and helps us be successful we’re all for. So, yes, we’re going to be very aggressive. I would say I’m the grassroots chairman. I came from the grassroots. I literally started as a volunteer door walker in high school. became the grassroots walking chair from my county, then the Young Republican chair, then the county chair, then the state chair, and now the RNC chair. It’s crazy. I’ve been trained to do exactly this, and this midterm is going to be all about turnout — making sure we get the Trump voters, the people who came out for the president three consecutive presidential cycles, to make sure they come out for these midterms and to make sure that they understand how important it is in these down ballot races and what it means to the President. What we’ve seen from the shutdown — now we’re in day 20 of the shutdown — the Democrats, they’re not looking to do a Kumbayah moment with the President. They want to obstruct him. They want to impeach him, and they want to do everything that that they can to make the President feel pain. It’s not for the greater good because now you have these Democrats — they’re going against law and order type policies in terms of cleaning up the cities. It’s going against the peace deals. It’s going against the economic policies which by the way have led to 69 percent lower egg prices and the biggest investment of resources back into the manufacturing sector and back into rural America that we’ve ever seen in decades. We’ve been net outsourcing all of our jobs, and all of a sudden we got somebody in the Democrats — what they’ve always said is this is for the American worker. But here you go. You have the president on the H-1B visa program making it much tougher which is going to protect mid-wage earners here in America and then the fact that he’s creating fair trade policies will lead ultimately to more blue collar type jobs across the country. I say all that because there’s nobody that’s done a better job of working on behalf of the average everyday American worker than President Trump. He genuinely cares about Americans, and I think it shows in all the policies that he pushes on an ongoing basis.”
Gruters also highlighted to Breitbart News that over the last several years Republicans have made major inroads with voter registration — beating Democrats in the past four years in all 30 states that track partisan registration. The biggest shifts have happened in Gruters’ Florida, and he is now seeking to emulate that aggressive trend nationally for the GOP.
“If you look at the 30 states that track voter registration over the last four years, we’ve won all 30 of them. You don’t go 30 for 30 by chance,” Gruters said. ““It’s all because the President’s policies, because of his willingness to reach across the aisle and build this coalition of people who love America. That’s what it’s all about. It’s, do you love America? Do you want to defend America? Anybody that believes — faith, freedom, family, right? Any of those things, you’re welcome. Our overall coalition, we’re not like the Democrats where you have to be a purist on that side. You could have different views on the Republican side and be successful within our party. People are seeing the left go to these woke extremes that are completely out of the mainstream and as a result we’re going to continue to do well. Yes, I think that our job as a party goes back to one of those three fundamental issues we’re focused on, that’s voter turnout. We do that by working with our different coalition partners, but we do that internally. That’s what the party is — we have 50 state parties. We have a thousand county and club organizations that we can mobilize and get out the vote. I think the President’s fully committed. When he recruited me, when he called me up and asked me to do this job, he told me that he was one hundred percent committed to winning the midterms and doing whatever it took. That meant helping us raise money, helping us be successful, creating an environment that will allow us to be successful, and he understands what’s at risk; losing is not an option, because I go back to the 20 days and the shutdowns that we’re seeing right now, the Democrats, their whole goal is to be obstructionist and to try to stop the president from being successful at any level because every day he is allowed to be the president is better for the party overall. As a matter of fact, I think what the President is doing is he’s making America great again by creating a culture, in an environment that the Republican candidates will dominate for decades if the President continues on the path and the pace that he’s going.”
On the GOP chances going into the midterms overall, though, Gruters emphasized cautious optimism if Republicans continue to follow Trump’s playbook.
“It all comes out of the President’s policies, and he’s given us the roadmap to victory,” Gruters said. “We just have to do our job as a party and make it happen, and that requires a lot of work. It requires a lot of money. It requires us to go get the right candidates. But I think that the President has given us that path because he’s been so successful in these policies. If you look at whether it’s the Big, Beautiful Bill or these major issues that he’s tackling, they’re all 80/20 type issues. So when you talk to the average, mainstream American, they’re with us. We just have to make sure we continue to give them that message and vision and get them out. I think we could do that by convincing them and by showing them exactly why. What’s happening right now with the shutdown is what will happen for two years if we allowed the Democrats to end up winning any of these. I’m as confident as could be but with the understanding that we can only get there with hard work. We have to get our voters out, and we only do that by focusing on a comprehensive strategy internally, with our state parties, with all of our coalition groups out there, to make sure we turn those voters out.”
While Gruters says things are looking up for the Republicans, he argues that as evidenced by the rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York City and other radical leftists taking over the Democrat Party that things are going exactly the wrong way long term for Democrats.
“TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] is real. I think the fact that they’re about to elect a semi-Communist in New York City shows you the direction of the party and the people that they want to support,” Gruters said when asked to assess the other side. “You look at all their candidates. Look at their gubernatorial candidates. Look at the Attorney General candidate in Jay Jones. They don’t normally have tough primaries but when they do they’re electing these far left, extreme, woke individuals that are not part of the mainstream and as a result I think that that’s why the American people, the 30 out 30 states over the last four years, have gone towards us. I think that we have the winning message but more than the winning message I think it’s created by the fact that we have a president that’s willing to not only talk about it, but put this message into and make it reality because everything like I said during the first 250 days has been nothing less than spectacular. We’re carrying the ball down the field, and I think it’s going to be very hard for the Democrats to stop the momentum that the President has been building.”
Asked if Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is the leader of the Democrat Party, Gruters said they have no leader — but that all the Democrats are vying to be their party’s leader.
“They all want to be the leader. You got J.B. Pritzker out there,” Gruters said. “You got Mamdani, you got AOC, but look at who they have to choose from. They’re a cast of characters that they call their leaders. They’re all out there away from the mainstream. I think it’s going to be hard for them to build the coalition they need to be successful.”
Gruters also said the Democrats are becoming more and more extreme, as well as more and more coastal and cosmopolitan.
“Look at the No Kings rallies. I don’t know if you saw those pictures,” Gruters said. “It’s white elitists out there that don’t have grandkids to go watch soccer games and so they’re out there spending their time. They’re not watching college football. They’re out there protesting nothing. There’s no kings here! They’re protesting just to protest. If you look at all those interviews from the people that they’ve interviewed during these protests, nobody knows what they’re protesting about because at the end of the day, how could they be against the eight peace deals that the President signed? How could they be against the economic policies the President’s bringing with real change for the first time in decades, whether it be the Republican or Democrat Party? He’s actually creating meaningful change that’s real, that will be lasting for a generation as a result of what he’s doing right now.”
He added that Democrats are becoming as extremist as they are becoming elitist.
“An elitist, anti-Semitic [party] with a Communist bent,” he answered when asked if Democrats are becoming marginalized. “It’s a losing party. Their policies themselves are losing issues, and they’re going to continue to be marginalized and they’re going to continue to shrink as a result of the extremism that they’re willing to go to to appease their mob base. The mob base, if you look at it, my guess is only 10 percent but because they’re so loud these candidates have gone so far to the left you can’t even recognize them anymore. It’s like Mamdani. What world do we live in that we think that a guy would take a picture with a guy who celebrated the World Trade Center bombings — and he’s taken a picture of him and he’s about to be elected in New York City? The fact is he’s basically an open anti-Semite and a Communist. It’s crazy. Mamdani and these other guys like AOC, they’ll continue to be the leaders of the party because they’re the most outspoken. They’re the ones people listen to and they’re who people are gravitating to. As a result, their party will continue to go further and further to the left which gives us a chance and a pathway to win for decades if we do everything right.”
Gruters also thinks that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are not secure in their positions.
“I always hear that Jeffries is not really the leader of the party anyway, that it’s still [Nancy] Pelosi that’s calling the shots,” Gruters said. “I mean, I don’t know. I’m not over there every day so I don’t know what’s really going on but you have to imagine that Jeffries and Schumer both are feeling the pressure from their left flank base but they both are sitting in a system where they’ve helped these other members get elected so they can continue to run and be their leaders. It’s only a matter of time before they’re taken out, and that’s why their refusal to condemn people like Jay Jones — whose disgusting and disqualifying remarks should have been enough to have him resign from his nomination for Attorney General, top law enforcement official in the state. But you look at that, and you look at this disgusting rhetoric that you’re seeing all across the country from the left and their willingness — and the polls have said it — I know this is a stretch, but there’s so many things that are going bad for the Democrats that I don’t know if there’s any bright spots whatsoever. On our side, we have the deepest bench I think we’ve ever had, and if you look at Trump’s cabinet they could probably all be President of the United States because they’re all so successful and they’re all so good at their jobs and they’re all — it’s like a machine. It’s like these guys are going to bat for the President, which is going to bat for America. I think that, and I go back to all the time to say that, you know what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania? I think God saved President Trump that day. I think that He saved him not only to save the country, but save the world. I think we were on the brink of losing everything with the failed leadership of Biden and Kamala Harris and all these other Democrat leftist leaders. In the president, he is showing every day what it takes to be a winner and what it takes to be a leader. So I think we’re absolutely dominating every aspect of every issue that matters to the average American voter.”
He added, too, that the conventional wisdom in Washington a decade ago that Democrats would benefit from demographic changes in the nation proved to be entirely wrong — and that it’s actually the Republicans benefitting from it as Democrats become more elitist and geographically limited while Republicans become more working class.
“I think if you look at it, just like 10 years ago they said with the changing demographics of the country that Democrats were going to be able to hold on to power for decades, but what you’ve seen is exactly the opposite,” Gruters said. “Now Republicans have taken control — and now Republicans have moved the needle on voter registration — and it’s because, I go back to the President’s policies, we’re winning with new demographics like Jewish voters, minority voters, women. We’re crushing everybody, I mean, but everything goes back to the President’s policies.”
Gruters said even political donors — who are clearly giving more to the Republicans than the Democrats right now — see the writing on the wall regarding the long-term prognosis of weakness for Democrats and are shifting their strategies toward backing more Republicans.
“So regarding the donors, yeah, the donors see what’s happening and the donors believe in the President,” Gruters said. “Everybody is winning. The RNC is winning, the NRCC is winning, the NRSC is winning. They’re all winning because of the President. The President’s leading for years and years and years. Everybody always says they want somebody that’s actually going to take action, not just talk about everything. Most elected officials, once they get in office, they want everybody to like them. It’s about legacy. It’s about everything else. With the President, all he cares about is making sure that America is the best possible country that we could be. He’s moving policies to push us in that direction and he’s winning over and over and over again. People see that. People want to reward that. That’s why we’re going to buck the trends and potentially change the historical narratives on these off-cycle elections. It’s strictly as a result of the fact that we have somebody who’s going to bat for the average American every single day.”
At the end of the day, victory in November 2026, he said, will all come down to whether or not Trump and the Republicans can turn out the Trump voters from 2024 when the president’s name is not on the ballot, although his agenda and continued success are on the ballot.
“I’m cautiously optimistic about our opportunities but it’s only if we — the President’s given us a gift,” Gruters said. “He’s given the American public a gift. We just have to take what he’s given us and be able to communicate that to the people. And turn our voters out.”
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