Why did Mike Beltran, a Republican trying to unseat Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Florida), first decide to run for public office?
Earlier this summer, his campaign website offered a clear answer: “Mike felt inspired by President Trump’s 2016 victory.” The former state lawmaker has “stood with President Trump every step of the way,” it said, and is running for Congress to “stand with President Trump to finish making America great again.”
Ahead of the general election, that section of his website has been revamped. Now, it says, Beltran “felt called to public service” and is running to be a “champion for lower costs, lower taxes, and increased healthcare access.”
Images of Trump and mentions of “America First” have also been removed from his homepage.
At least seven Republican House candidates in battleground races have de-emphasized or removed mentions of Trump and his priorities on their campaign websites ahead of the general election, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Candidates from both parties have long shifted messages after a primary to appeal to a broader electorate. But changes this year highlight the particularly challenging balancing act some Republican candidates face.
Trump’s unpopularity threatens to turn off independent and moderate voters that Republicans will need to win in competitive congressional districts. The president’s approval rating has hovered in the mid-30s, and he has faced pushback over an unpopular war in Iran.
But Republicans also have an interest in not running too far from the president. Trump maintains a strong influence over the party base, with the overwhelming majority of his endorsed candidates winning their primaries. He is also sitting on more than $400 million in his super PAC, MAGA Inc., the lion’s share of which has not yet been allocated for the general election.
Some candidates who have dialed back Trump’s presence on their websites, including Beltran, continue to tout his endorsement on social media.
Trump has worked to focus the midterms on himself, hosting an unprecedented midterm party convention in Dallas next week — which many House Republicans are not expected to attend — and centering his super PAC ads on his own accomplishments.
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, asserted that the balancing act will only harm Republican candidates in a year with historically poor approval of the president.
“It’s easy to understand why those careening towards defeat are attempting to distance themselves from the President,” DelBene said in a statement. “Voters are angry at Republicans for making their lives worse and are ready — if not outright eager — to reject them in November.”
In one of the most striking pivots, Ralph Alvarado, a Republican running in Kentucky, recently scrubbed his website of language casting him as an “America first fighter” and an ally to Trump. He now touts his “independent leadership.”
NBC first reported the changes to Alvarado’s website, and the Washington Examiner first reported changes to Beltran’s.
Mike Bouchard, a Republican running in a highly competitive House race in Michigan, featured a prominent banner at the top of his website noting Trump’s endorsement before the state’s Aug. 4 primaries. He has since removed mention of the president from his homepage, though he includes Trump in smaller text in his endorsements page.
Joe Mitchell, a Republican competing in a tight House race in Iowa, has photos of the president throughout his website and social media. But in the prominent section of his website explaining why he is running for Congress, Trump is no longer mentioned.
On his website this earlier this summer, Mitchell called himself a “trusted voice in the MAGA movement” and pledged to “always fight for the hard-working Iowans who have made their support for President Trump loud and clear.”
Now: Iowa needs fighters in Congress who will “clean up Washington and put working families first.”
Some of the changes are more subtle. Eric Flores, a Texas Republican running against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in a district that Trump won in 2024, took out language in a section about his priorities that said he would “support President Trump’s agenda.” The president’s endorsement, however, remains at the top of his list of endorsements on his website.
Republican Rep. Nick Begich, an incumbent in Alaska facing a challenge from independent Bill Hill, removed mention of working “along side President Trump” to deliver for Alaska. He still touts legislation he got signed into law under Trump.
In other cases, pro-Trump candidates have moderated language expressing their support for MAGA causes.
Rep. Elijah Crane (Arizona), a staunch conservative, declared his right-wing stances on his campaign website earlier this year, pledging to end “forever wars” and “reckless government spending.” He also had a section on his issues page about “defeating woke and weaponized government,” and vowed to “ban Critical Race Theory.”
None of those stances remain on his website, which now features a number of more locally focused priorities, including “protecting our land” and “delivering for rural Arizona.” His support for Trump is still prominent.
Jonathan Nez, a former president of the Navajo Nation who is running against Crane, said Crane was “callously trying to cover up his tracks” after failing in Congress to lower the national debt and prevent the war with Iran.
Some of the campaigns that made changes insisted they were not distancing themselves from the president.
“Websites are updated all the time,” Drew Johns, Mitchell’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “I don’t think anyone questions where Joe Mitchell stands on President Trump and the America-first agenda.”
Asked about the deleted mentions and photo of Trump on Beltran’s site, the campaign said in a statement, “Mike had a family photoshoot after the primary and liked the photos so we put them on his website.” The statement questioned why that was a news story.
Jon Shiner, a spokesperson for the Bouchard campaign, said the changes to the website were made to reflect that he is now the Republican nominee for the district following Michigan’s August primary elections.
“Mike is proud of his endorsement by President Trump,” Shiner said, noting that Bouchard participated in a rally with Vice President JD Vance on Monday and that Trump’s support was still listed on the endorsements page.
Campaign representatives for Begich, Crane and Flores did not offer comment.
Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the House Republicans’ campaign committee, dismissed the attention on the Republicans’ websites as “nothing more than a manufactured storyline all to provide cover for Democrats who kissed the ring of their radical socialist leaders to survive their primaries and are now desperately hoping a phony moderate makeover will fool voters before November.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which works to elect congressional Republicans, has not shied away from Trump. This year, it changed the name of its program for its most competitive candidates from “Young Guns” to “MAGA Majority.”
“President Trump and House Republicans have delivered historic results for the American people, and our candidates are eager to take that record directly to voters alongside the President on the campaign trail,” Marinella said in a statement.
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