President Donald Trump’s approval ratings keep dropping. His handling of the economy is deeply unpopular. Even on immigration — one of his stronger issues — he doesn’t have majority support. Several Senate Republicans are now criticizing some of his major priorities, like a $1.8 billion legal payout fund for people who claim they were politically targeted or securing a $1 billion allocation tied to his White House ballroom. And polls show voters say they prefer Democrats over Republicans in Congress next year.
November’s midterm elections seem to be shaping up to be rough for the Republican Party, which is trying to hold onto control of Congress, governor’s mansions and some statehouses. So what do Republicans campaign on?
Here’s what they say they plan to talk about on the campaign trail.
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Affordability
Gas prices are high right now amid the war in Iran, and there’s not much Republican lawmakers can do about that. Prices overall are rising at the fastest pace in years.
But Republican lawmakers can talk about other ways they’re trying to make lives more affordable, said Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which supports Republican lawmakers in competitive congressional districts.
“Affordability is the top issue,” she said.
She mentioned legislation that passed the House last week to try to make housing more available and cheaper. And Republicans in tough elections in New Jersey and New York can campaign on securing much higher deductions for residents who pay a lot of state and local taxes.
Trump’s tax cuts
Along the lines of affordability, last year, Republicans passed a tax bill designed primarily to extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term.
At the time, the bill was unpopular. Polls showedAmericans were skeptical the tax law would help them.
Three Republican senators voted against it, citing concerns that cutting Medicaid, a widely used public health insurance program for low-income Americans, would be unpopular in red America. Critics contend that most breaks go to the wealthy and big businesses. And the bill is estimated to add trillions to a worrisomely high national debt.
But Republican strategists maintain the bill is popular overall. It includes tax breaks on tips and overtime, and small-business relief as well as an expanded child tax credit.
When the tax cuts went into effect this spring, a number of Americans received higher tax refunds (though not as much as Trump promised). And many states won’t feel the loss of Medicaid funding until later this year.
“Cutting taxes was this Congress’s signature achievement,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant, “and it’s popular with our base and independents.”
Democrats
Trump isn’t popular right now. He is not a topic that many Republicans in tough election battles bring up on the campaign trail, Chamberlain said. “They’re on the ballot,” she said, “not the president.”
But there’s a real possibility Democrats control at least the House next year, if not the Senate, should Democrats have an incredible election.
So it has worked in the past for Republicans to frame the alternative as unpalatable: that Democrats are too out-of-step with most of America. One TV ad viewed as effective by Republicans and some Democratic strategists was one of the Trump campaign’s closing ads in 2024: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
In a highly watched Senate race in Texas where Republicans just nominated a weak candidate, they’ve quickly seized on a comment the Democratic candidate, James Talarico, once made that “God is nonbinary” and falsely accused him of being vegan.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who talks a lot about redistributing wealth, is another potential bogeyman for Republicans.
Expect those kinds of attacks on culture issues in contests around the nation, say Republican strategists.
“Republicans want to make this election a choice,” Conant said, “framing Democrats as way too liberal.”
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