As we learned from the 2025 mid-midterms, the GOP has a turnout problem. Or more accurately, the Democrats have riled their TDS-afflicted base up so much that even good GOP turnout – see New Jersey – is not enough in competitive in Democrat leaning areas where the Democrat base will walk over broken glass to vote against Donald Trump.
Part of the problem is that many potential Republican voters are increasingly dismayed by the (still) high inflation and other economic troubles. As it has been almost a year since Joe Biden wandered off into the sunset, some of these voters are now blaming the Trump administration. This was somewhat inevitable.
As a result of the mid-midterms, the Trump political team has vowed to focus on affordability for 2026. President Trump has promised $2000 tariff rebate checks to voters sometime before Christmas, which is nothing more than stealing the thunder from the Democrats, who frequently attempt to “incentive” votes from their voters.
Anybody remember the Obama phone from 2012?
The Trump team is also planning a mid-term mini-Republican convention this year, where Donald Trump will be the center of attention. This particular type of mid-term convention has never before been tried. The Democrats did have three mid-term conventions – in 74, in 78, and in 82 – but only the 82 convention occurred before the elections, and that year there was no sitting Democrat president to celebrate.
Considering Trump himself is a particularly effective showman, I agree with my fellow Eagles booster on its possible effectiveness. (Go Birds!)
Trump himself has also promised more of his signature rallies. And in 2018, they may have helped keep the GOP majority by winning a net two Senate seats by ousting four Democrat Senators in Republican states. This year, in the Senate, the Democrats must win solid Republican majority states to pick up that chamber.
But there are other things that the GOP might also want to consider.
In 2012, President Obama was still blaming President Bush for the economy. This was after the Democrats had run against Bush in 2006, 2008, and 2010. (It didn’t work in 2010.) In 2012, Obama won, although I personally doubt that the Bush-bashing was a critical component. My educated guess is that Obama won in 2012 largely by running on his race to guilt African Americans and some white voters into voting for him. (Don’t be a racist, vote Obama, he and his minions often admonished or implied.)
Nevertheless, the Trump campaign seems to have downplayed the Biden bashing recently. There is no reason to do that. Hitting the prior administration can’t hurt, and it is, anyway, quite a legitimate criticism. There is no question that the Biden administration’s spending and illegal immigration flood badly hurt the U.S. economy and greatly impacted affordability and crime.
Speaking of the lack of Biden bashing, the Trump campaign must dramatically gear up its negative campaigning quotient. Every political consultant will tell you that negative attacks are ALWAYS more effective than positive boosting of the candidate. In 2003-2004, when I worked for (then) Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who was often despised by his own party base, we leaned heavily into negative campaigning, and it worked.
It is especially important that when negative attacks are used, the attacker must “pick the target, freeze it, personalise it, and polarise it,” as Saul Alinsky wrote:
Alinsky applied this rule in the context of campaigns against corporations. The campaign is not against an impersonal legal entity – it’s against a person. ‘John L. Lewis, the leader of the radical CIO labor organisation in the 1930s, was fully aware of this, and as a consequence the CIO never attacked General Motors, they always attacked its president, Alfred ‘Icewater-In-His-Veins’ Sloan; they never attacked the Republic Steel Corporation but always its president, ‘Bloodied Hands’ Tom Girdler…’
Alinsky is the leftist thinker whom all modern Democrats, including Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and George Soros, worship.
Maybe it’s time for Republicans to make the Democrats play by their own rules?
Besides Joe Biden, there are several other potential Democrat targets to pick, freeze, personalize, and polarize. There is Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8). Remember, in the 1996 campaign, President Bill Clinton and the MSM went after the Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, for his supposed deviltry, and even labeled him as the “Gingrich Who Stole Christmas.”
And then there is another potential target — the “intellectual” (but-not-really) leader of the Democrat Party, the incoming Commie Radical Muslim Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani wants to seize the means of production. Mamdani wants to defund the police and use social workers in their stead. Mamdani hangs out with unindicted terrorists. Mamdani likely wants to globalize the intifada.
Not surprisingly, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (NY-21) already plans to pick, freeze, personalize, and polarize Mamdani in her race for New York governor.
As fellow Redstaters have reported, the just-passed continuing resolution to end the federal government shutdown may also be used to provide blowback against the Democrats. And even the Epstein scandal – which I think is a nothingburger – can be turned back on the Democrats.
READ MORE: Swing Voters Have Some Bad News for Dems With Blowback Over Shutdown
Oh My: Dem Received Texts from Epstein During 2019 Congressional Hearing – and It Gets Worse
We have a year to go before the 2026 midterms, which is a lifetime in politics. The GOP still has plenty of advantages: They are raising big bucks; redistricting is likely to be an overall plus; the Democrats can’t control their TDS, which drives them to make mistakes; and simple logic demonstrates that the 2026 midterms should have better GOP turnout than the 2025 mid-midterms.
There is still plenty of time to turn things around.
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