More than a dozen Republican leaders in state legislatures across the country have headed for the exits over the past 14 months, in what analysts said could be yet another ominous sign of midterm trouble for a party already reeling from Donald Trump’s cratering approval ratings.
The departures, which come from battleground states including Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia and Iowa, mirror a parallel exodus happening in Congress, where 36 Republican House members and seven GOP senators have announced they won’t seek reelection in November.
“I think he puts Republicans on the defensive with his actions,” Colorado GOP consultant Dick Wadhams told Politico in a report published Saturday. “They can’t stand it anymore.”
The most damaging losses have come in Wisconsin, where Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu both announced retirements in recent months, leaving the party defending razor-thin margins on redrawn maps that already cost them 10 Assembly seats in 2024.
“Democrats are salivating at the opportunity. Politico put it bluntly: ‘Republicans are losing their bench.’”
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is spending $50 million — its largest investment ever — targeting 42 chambers this November, with party officials explicitly comparing 2026 to 2010, when Republicans flipped 22 chambers in a single wave election.
A recent Marquette Law School poll found just 42 percent of Wisconsin voters approve of Trump’s job performance, with majorities opposing the Iran war and supporting the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn his tariffs.
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