{"id":1938,"date":"2026-05-28T18:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:07:15","slug":"what-are-republicans-going-to-campaign-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1938","title":{"rendered":"What are Republicans going to campaign on?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump is unpopular. Gas prices are high. Republicans are searching for a midterm message.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Tigers place closer Kenley Jansen on the 15-day injured list with pelvic inflammation<\/a><\/p>\n

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Supporters cheer for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won the Republican nomination for Senate this week. (LM Otero\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s approval ratings keep dropping<\/a>. His handling of the economy is deeply unpopular. Even on immigration \u2014 one of his stronger issues \u2014 he doesn\u2019t have majority support. Several Senate Republicans are now criticizing<\/a> 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 <\/b>allocation tied to his White House ballroom. And polls show voters say they prefer Democrats over Republicans in Congress next year.<\/p>\n

November\u2019s midterm elections seem to be shaping up to be rough for the Republican Party, which is trying to hold onto control of Congress, governor\u2019s mansions and some statehouses. So what do Republicans campaign on?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they say they plan to talk about on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re reading The 5-Minute Fix newsletter, a free analysis of the day\u2019s biggest political news. <\/i>Get it in your inbox<\/i><\/a> every weekday.<\/i><\/p>\n

Gas prices are high right now amid the war in Iran, and there\u2019s not much Republican lawmakers can do about that. Prices overall are rising at the fastest pace in years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Republican lawmakers can talk about other ways they\u2019re trying to make lives more affordable, said Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which supports Republican lawmakers in competitive congressional districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffordability is the top issue,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Along the lines of affordability, last year, Republicans passed a tax bill designed primarily to extend tax cuts from Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

At the time, the bill was unpopular. Polls showed <\/a>Americans were skeptical the tax law would help them.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> trillions to a worrisomely high national debt.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>

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When the tax cuts went into effect this spring, a number of Americans<\/a> received higher tax refunds (though not as much<\/a> as Trump promised). And many states won\u2019t feel the loss of Medicaid funding until later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCutting taxes was this Congress\u2019s signature achievement,\u201d said Republican strategist Alex Conant, \u201cand it\u2019s popular with our base and independents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump isn\u2019t popular right now. He is not a topic that many Republicans in tough election battles bring up on the campaign trail, Chamberlain said. \u201cThey\u2019re on the ballot,\u201d she said, \u201cnot the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a real possibility Democrats control at least the House next year, if not the Senate, should Democrats have an incredible election.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s closing ads in 2024: \u201cKamala is for they\/them. President Trump is for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a highly watched Senate race in Texas<\/a> where Republicans just nominated a weak candidate, they\u2019ve quickly seized on<\/a> a comment the Democratic candidate, James Talarico, once made that \u201cGod is nonbinary\u201d and falsely accused<\/a> him of being vegan.<\/p>\n

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who talks a lot about redistributing wealth, is another potential bogeyman for Republicans.<\/p>\n

Expect those kinds of attacks on culture issues in contests around the nation, say Republican strategists.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans want to make this election a choice,\u201d Conant said, \u201cframing Democrats as way too liberal.\u201d<\/p>

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Trump is unpopular; gas prices are high<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat are Republicans going to campaign on? - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1938\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are Republicans going to campaign on? - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump is unpopular; gas prices are high\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1938\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-28T18:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/021c705b7ac1ffc0b3e82bd712052e46-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"What are Republicans going to campaign on?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-28T18:07:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938\"},\"wordCount\":758,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/11a382e3643b299a400b41d8122f86f6-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1938\",\"name\":\"What are Republicans going to campaign on? 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