Republicans Brace for Brutal Midterms as Trump’s Popularity Slips

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Republicans Brace for Brutal Midterms as Trump’s Popularity Slips

The elections are still six months off, and some within the G.O.P. say there is still time to right the ship.

The Republican Party’s outlook has dimmed along with voter faith that President Trump can fix the economy.

Credit...

Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Republicans Brace for Brutal Midterms as Trump’s Popularity Slips

The elections are still six months off, and some within the G.O.P. say there is still time to right the ship.

The Republican Party’s outlook has dimmed along with voter faith that President Trump can fix the economy.

Credit...

Kenny Holston/The New York Times

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By

Shane Goldmacher

Shane Goldmacher is a national political correspondent who interviewed more than two dozen political strategists and candidates in both parties for this story.

April 28, 2026

President Trump’s approval ratings are down. Gas prices are up. Congressional Republicans are heading to the exits in record numbers. And Democratic enthusiasm is cresting.

With a little more than six months until the midterm elections, anxious Republicans are confronting a foreboding political climate that party leaders fear could lead to a wipeout in the fall if it does not improve.

The House is now favored to fall into Democratic hands while control of the Senate —

not so long ago seen as a G.O.P. bulwark

— is increasingly up for grabs as Democratic candidates up and down the ballot build substantial war chests.

In private, Republican political strategists are grimly trading synonyms to describe the darkening environment: sour, ugly, bad, bleak. They note that much can change before November, holding out hope that the days of $4 gas and the war in Iran pass before the election.

“If the election were in May, Republicans would lose,” said Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker, who urged his party’s leaders to “get reality a little better — and get communications a hell of a lot better” to salvage their majorities this fall.

“The war, the sense of affordability and gasoline — some of that has to be cleared up in order to win,” Mr. Gingrich said. “If it doesn’t change, I’ll start tearing my hair out.”

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